


Outsider

by PalaeoPanthalassa



Category: The Dark Crystal (1982)
Genre: 21st century human in another world trope, AU, Gen, Misunderstandings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Skeksis - Freeform, Sneakiness, Wynn is sneaky too, lying skeksis, scheming skeksis, story focus is more on learning about the world of TDC from an outsider's perspective, this is a slow story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 23:39:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12352902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PalaeoPanthalassa/pseuds/PalaeoPanthalassa
Summary: With no clue as to how she got there, and no knowledge of the land she is now in, Wynn finds herself in an utterly alien world. And the closest things to people around seem to consist only of a small group of ancient vulture-like creatures, who inhabit an otherwise mysteriously empty castle isolated amongst a dying landscape. Wynn is quick to learn that the word 'friend' here has little meaning, and that she must rely on her own wit and strategy if she wants to survive long enough to figure out a way home.





	1. Different

**Author's Note:**

> Just reposting this from deviantart, I'm slowly moving all my stories from to here as well so that I have all my TDC stories in a nice neat little collection :) Other than that, hope you enjoy this my attempt on tackling that age old trope of a 21st century human in another universe realistically as I can. Be prepared for some major TDC nerdyness, but beware the lies of the skeksis, not everything they say is necessarily true!

The first thing she was aware of was the smell of the forest.  
  
Overpowering, heady and earthy.  
  
The scent of leaf litter, crushed greenery, rotting wood and damp soil.  
  
And all around her buzzed the sounds of insects, and overhead, the distant chirping of birds.  
  
Dried leaves crackled and poked up beneath her hands and against her face, she could feel the damp of the ground through the front of her clothes and against her bare feet.  
  
_Cold._  
  
Dappled green light played upon the ground around her, sunlight flickering gently through the thick foliage of the trees overhead. In her confusion Wynn reasoned she must have fallen over. But fallen over doing what, she couldn't remember.  
__  
Had she been sleepwalking?  
  
Pushing herself up, feeling the leaves slip and slide beneath her hands, Wynn groggily looked around to see where she was. Subconsciously aware that she was dressed in only her pyjamas.  
  
Looking up towards the treetops, she suddenly felt very small. The trees were immensely tall, reaching up high into the sky. Many were bound with twisting and spiralling blue-green vines, some of the nearest to her was ornamented by chains of tiny exotic orange and yellow flowers.  
__  
This place was not familiar...  
  
Slowly she looked around, and all she saw was endless forest.  
  
Turning one way then the next, over and over again, she began to come out of her daze as she looked around frantically, trying to figure out where she was as panic began to set in.  
  
_Where was she? How had she gotten here?_ There was something not quite right about this place, something was off...  
  
Hastily she staggered to her feet, leaning against a tree as she brushed off the leaves from her clothes. She looked around again to see if she could spot any landmark that might point her towards civilisation or, at the very least, the nearest road. It only dawned on her though, as she looked, again and again, trying to spot some landmark, what exactly was so wrong about the forest.  
  
None of it looked familiar. And it wasn't just because she hadn't been here before.  
  
_None of the plants even looked right!_  
  
From where she was standing, she could see bright lilac coloured flowers, their petals folded and crowded in their arrangement as to somewhat resemble narrow elongated roses, but at the edges of their velvety petals there were dark cruel curved thorns.  
  
The tree she was leaning against had thin long blue-green leaves which hung down in bunches from its long spidery branches that were twisted and plaited.  
  
One of the oddest sights though, was an immense yellow rocky structure, but covered in small pores and tunnels, from which many delicate feathery pink filaments waved gently in the breeze.  
  
Wynn looked up as she heard a low whistling sound overhead, and saw what appeared to be a furry boomerang fly out of the trees and land upon the coral-like structure. Immediately the pink filaments were withdrawn from sight.  
  
_Just what in the world?!_  
  
Feeling confused more than anything else, she began to approach the strange creature. But before she could get close enough to get a good look at what it was, the furry boomerang span off into the treetops again with an alarmed whistle, startling several hidden creatures in the treetops which squealed and flew away with a loud clattering of many wings.  
  
Wynn stopped in her tracks and looked around again. Aware now that she was lost, she tried to think practically. The first thing that came to mind was to try to figure out which direction the sun was moving, so that she had some orientation as to where north and south was, but the trees hid the sky from her. The next thing she thought of was to find a body of water, preferably a river, which she could hopefully follow out of the forest. But she could neither see nor hear one anywhere nearby.  
  
There were no pathways she could follow, this was clearly wild forest, but now that she looked carefully she could see signs of game trails – tracks worn through the forests by animals.  
  
' _A good start'_ , she reassured herself, and began to pick her way along the trail.  
  
...  
  
Perhaps an hour passed as she did the best she could to navigate through the jumbled forest, startling several bright coloured flyers and narrow-nosed crawlers as she crashed through the bushes and stumbled over roots.  
  
At one point she nearly stepped upon what appeared to be a mound of brown furry pompoms, each the size of a guinea-pig and completely motionless. But when Wynn tried to look at them more closely they abruptly came to life, letting out series of startlingly loud roars, causing her to fall back in surprise. All of fluffballs then bounced and rolled off into the undergrowth, almost as if not using their legs at all, and were quickly gone from sight.  
  
Wynn stayed still for a little while after the fuzzballs were gone, listening intently to her surroundings, wondering if the loud noise would have drawn other creatures out of the trees to investigate. Her main worry being that larger and more dangerous creatures would appear. But she could hear nothing but the distant chirping trill of birds, the buzz of insects hidden in the greenery...and just faintly she could hear the bubbling of water over rocks.  
__  
That could only mean a river!  
  
Wynn broke into a run, dashing towards the sound off the water.  
  
She stepped upon something large and grey with fronds, that groaned and shifted beneath her feet as she ran, but she didn't stick around to find out what it was. Some of the smaller trees in her path appeared to move, bending away from her on their own freewill, vines twisting like awoken serpents, but she had seen enough strange things that day that it didn't really surprise her at this point.  
  
Breaking free of the forest, she now ran upon warm and dusty ground, sunbaked harder than the spongy mossy forest floor. Ahead of her, twinkling beneath the sun's light, she could see a dark meandering river with several large trees overhangings it banks.  
  
Wynn to come skidding to an abrupt stop as she spotted something large moving beneath the shade of the trees ahead.  
  
Several large creatures, with ridiculously long odd-looking legs, stood around the river's edge. Each was yellow-grey in colour, with small rounded heads and long narrow ears, which occasionally flapped lazily as the animals moved around to drink. Others had hunkered down and were resting in the shade of the trees, long legs folded beneath their nearly hairless rounded bodies.  
  
Wynn could see no jaws on any of them, which was odd, and as she watched, one drank from the river, extending a long tongue to do so. They didn't look predatory to her. And more reassuringly, though they had noticed her - as one of the resting ones currently had her fixed in its sights - they didn't appear to be bothered by her presence.  
  
This didn't meant they weren't dangerous though, and Wynn decided to keep her distance from these bizarre creatures as she approached the river.  
  
Close to the water, the sounds of the forest were drowned out. The river was wide and deep, rapid and meandering. She washed her face and hands in the cold water, and wondered if it would be safe to drink.  
  
The sun's light was warm here, she could already feel her damp clothes drying in the heat. She shaded her eyes as she looked up, hoping to gauge the time of day, only to nearly fall into the river in shock.  
__  
THREE suns hung in the sky!  
  
It had to be a trick of the light. Something to do with the weather that refracted the sun's rays! But no matter how she angled her gaze, or squinted, the three tricoloured suns remained where they were.  
  
Wynn had just come to the conclusion that she had to be dreaming, when one of the tall long-legged creatures by the river let out a loud squeal.  
  
She looked up.  
  
The herbivores that had been resting in the shade were now on their feet, standing stiffly, all of them were turned back towards the forest, large ears raised and twitching erratically. Wynn turned to look back as well, but could not see what had the tall creatures so alarmed.  
  
Just faintly, she thought she could hear something now, a repeated clacking and cracking sound, like the snapping of branches and the beating of metal.  
  
Seconds later the undergrowth around the edge of the forest trembled, and then abruptly out poured a multitude of animals, small and large, all running in a fierce panic.  
  
They surged towards the river like a wave, little animals that earlier had seemed afraid of her, now completely disregarded her, swarming past her feet as they scuttled and scurried, mad with fear, while larger animals knocked and barged against her as they passed.  
  
Wynn stood her ground, still looking towards the forest to find out what had everything running. Her first thoughts were of a forest fire, but she could see no smoke.  
  
And then out from the trees, crashed huge shelled forms, gleaming a black-brown under the suns' light. Each was easily taller than her and probably thrice as wide, with gleaming eyes, and she could see the source of the metallic clacking sound now, as each monster was armed with a claw the size of a large frying pan  
  
_'Crack, crack, crack!'_ the claws clacked almost mechanically, and beneath each creature a multitude of many jointed legs bristled as they poured out from between the trees.  
  
Mutely she took this all in for about a second, and then she turned to run as well.  
  
All along the forest edge now the clawed monsters seemed to be emerging, as one great wall of blackened shells, they began to encircle and drive the animals into a smaller and smaller area against the river.  
  
Now the sound of the rushing river itself was nearly drowned out by the fierce panic inducing chorus of clacking of claws and creaking of jointed legs, as they got closer and closer. Some of the animals tried to make a break for it, running back towards the forest. Many escaped but others were snapped up and crushed in the claws of the monsters.  
  
None of the animals tried to cross the river, but Wynn decided she didn't care why and began to wade in, planning to swim across to the other side to escape.  
  
Behind her a baskeball sized squirrel-like creature covered in long plumes, screeched in fear and also leapt forward, first onto Wynn's shoulder and then into the water ahead of her. It swam rapidly, tail beating the water, it sped across the river despite the fierce current beginning to drag it downriver.  
__  
'FWOOSH!'  
  
Abruptly the water erupted ahead of her, and just as quickly the little creature was gone. But Wynn caught sight of the large shadow disappearing back under the water, like a giant scaleless pike without any eyes.  
  
It was enough to make her blood run cold.  
  
And in a panic, she quickly scrambled back to shore.  
  
The tall herbivores by now were also trying to escape. Galloping, they kicked and squealed at the clawed creatures, knocking many of them down, jointed legs snapping off of heavy cumbersome bodies under the force of the the herbivores assailment. But inevitably several of the tall creatures fell, pulled down and swarmed, disappearing under the shining carapaces of the clawed creatures as they struggled and squealed.  
  
And there! There was a gap in their ranks! Where the clawed creatures had fallen away from the line so as to subdue the long-legged herbivore. This was her chance!  
  
Wynn broke into a run, bolting between them, hoping to get back to the forest and climb the nearest tree she could reach.  
  
Then her feet left the ground.  
  
A crushing pressure constricted painfully at her arm as she was yanked back. But her scream died in her throat as her feet touched the ground again, her lungs seemed to stop working in her panic. The clawed creatures were all around her, eyes shining like bright crystals. They didn't look like eyes at all!  
  
Wynn cowered, trying to appear as small as possible amongst the armored creatures. She didn't make a sound, terrified she might provoke them into a feeding frenzy and be ripped to pieces as a result.  
  
Then she was upside down, flailing as the creatures jostled her around, she couldn't understand what was going on until they finally managed to shove her into a wicker cage barely big enough to fit her. Captured like a crayfish. She felt bruised and squashed as she tried to turn herself the right way up again, pushing against the bars of the cage to pull herself upwards.  
  
The clawed creatures had fallen away by this point, chasing and capturing what was left of the remaining cornered animals.  
  
The one which she was currently being carried by no longer participated in the hunt, instead it began to trundle towards where others of its kind, with cages already full of squirming, squealing animals, were beginning to head back towards the forest.  
  
She pushed at the trapdoor of the wicker cage, but found it wouldn't budge. She would have kicked it if she had had enough room to move her legs.  
  
Slowly all the clawed creatures began to congregate, gathering in a troop once more they began to move uniformly in one direction, jointed legs moving in perfect tandem, massive shiny backs swaying too and fro as they began to march onward indifferently.  
  
' _These creatures had to be intelligent',_ she concluded looking at the cages and the captured animals. _'We're all food to them!'_  
  
“H-hello?” she said, grasping at the bars. “Can you understand me? Where are you taking me?!”  
  
If the creatures could understand her they gave no sign. Nothing changed, not even in the methodical way they walked. She might as well have said nothing at all. Moving in perfect synchronisation, the plates upon their backs clacking like armour, they never once appeared to communicate between themselves.  
  
_Perhaps they couldn't talk?_  
  
As they walked onward she could swear she heard the metallic grinding of gears.  
  
And Wynn began to wonder whether they were in fact alive at all.  
  
...  
  
The journey was bumpy and jarring, but steady. The first of the three weird suns had vanished below the horizon by the time they cleared the forest a few hours later.  
  
Still crushed into what looked to her like a giant lobster basket, she had by now stopped struggling and was just observing the landscape from between the bars, dejectedly. Looking ahead towards where they were going, or trying to anyway was impossible as she found she didn't even have much room to turn her head. But from what she could see, the ground was cracked from dessication and few plants grew on the barren ground here.  
  
The suns, without the shade of the trees, beat a harshly down on the barren landscape here.  
  
So she felt it immediately when sunlight was no longer on them, a huge spiky shadow loomed ahead of them, unable to turn to see for herself she could only guess that it was an immense structure, a building, perhaps even a castle.  
  
In the distance she heard a bell chime.  
  
Presently the creatures began to move in single file, passing into a narrow tunnel – so narrow that with her arms outstretched, Wynn would have probably been able to touch the sides of it.  
  
Further in, the tunnel opened out into a small dark indoor courtyard, lit by a few shafts of light originating from high and narrow gaps near the ceiling of the immensely high room.  
  
A balcony of about three meters was raised above the ground level they were on, with a ramp leading up to it. It looked as if it had been built for watchers to observe the returning creatures, but no one occupied it now. The whole room seemed strangely abandoned. The shelled creatures did not go up the ramp, but rather continued onwards, below a low archway and deeper into the depths of the castle.  
  
Here it was very dark, the only illumination were the dimly glowing lamps that hung upon the walls.  
  
Eventually the tunnel broadened out into wider space again, where she spotted a stairwell up to higher floors. Wynn couldn't help but think that her captors would have a lot of difficulty navigating up and down these narrow stairwells with their wide cumbersome forms and many pointed legs. They didn't try to though, instead they began to converge at one end of the room, turning towards the wall in a line so that they faced the wall and their baskets were faced out into the room. Then they sank to ground, their eyes stopped glowing and they moved no more.  
  
Still and alike as statues.  
  
To Wynn it confirmed that the creatures were not truly alive, they seemed more akin to machines than living flesh.  
  
Now that she was no longer being thrown from side to side, Wynn shifted around in the cage-like basket, sticking her arms out from between the bars, her fingers sought out the locking mechanism to the trapdoor. But there seemed to be no latch that she could find, no knot or lock that was keeping the door in place, yet it wouldn't budge.  
  
Abruptly there was the loud hoot of a horn, giving her quite the fright. She looked around for the source of the noise and was shocked when she spotted what appeared to be a tiny figure in a burlap hood, only two feet tall, standing in the corner of the room.  
  
_Had it been standing there the whole time?_ It had never moved, if it had been.  
  
Several minutes passed in silence, save for the creaking of the wicker cage as she tried to move around. The blank-eyed tiny creature remained in the corner of the room, looking forward blankly. Wynn watching it suspiciously, but it never moved, and she soon lost interest in it.  
  
Finally she figured out the locking mechanism to the basket, and unfortunately for her it looked to be ingenious. The rope that kept the trapdoor shut was wrapped around the clawed creature, it held the door shut itself, a bit like a drawbridge. Seeing as she had no chance of winning against this creature in a battle of strength, it meant the weakest part of the door was actually the hinge. She eyed this and wondered if she had enough room to be able to kick this violently enough to make it break.  
  
For some reason she doubted the clawed creature would try to stop her, or at least it wouldn't until she had broken free.  
  
But her train of thought was interrupted again as she became aware of another sound.  
  
It was a rhythmical clacking of metal upon stone, coming from the room that led off the chamber she was currently in. And as it got gradually louder and closer, she began to pick up on other sounds  as well, the rustling of cloth and the hissing of breath.  
  
And then it appeared in the arched doorway, something much larger than the potato sack creature but smaller than the clawed creatures, but at first glance, it too looked to have a shell upon its back.  
  
She quickly withdrew her hands back into the basket.  
  
Hunched and leaning heavily upon a metal-tipped cane, it limped slowly into the room, long robes trailing noisily on the ground behind it. Her eyes still adjusting to the gloom, she could just make out what appeared to be an elongated bird-like head with hooked teeth and a single glowing eye. Wynn watched in silence, as it stopped at the first of the clawed creature's cage, inspecting what was contained.  
  
“Hn,” it grunted in conclusion, pointing decisively with one hand. Immediately the clawed creature rose to its feet and lumbered away with its cage.  
  
Wynn shifted in the cage uneasily. Just what happened to those in the cages? Was she destined for the cooking pot of some strange creature? _She needed to get out of here!_  
  
This new creature, paused at the next cage, in which the lone animal was no longer moving. Seemingly disastified, it steadied itself by gripping at the bars of the basket and raised its cane, and then jabbed it into the cage sharply. The previously motionless animal let out a high pitched squeal. The bird-like creature, the vulture, quickly withdrew, satisfied with the response.  
  
That clawed creature with its catch was sent away in turn.  
  
And then the vulture limped along to stand before her cage and looked in.  
  
It took one look at her and froze, hissing breath coming to an abrupt halt.  
  
Wynn remained completely motionless, her eyes fixed on the vulture's bald head and pointed teeth. She could see now that only one of its eyes glowed, the other was organic and looked disturbingly human in appearance as it narrowed at her, the vulture leaning forward to look more closely at her.  
  
She noticed though as it began to raise its cane again, as if to  jab her like it had done to the animal...  
  
With an abrupt surge of strength, she braced her feet upon the bars and pushed herself further up the clawed creature's back, allowing her just enough room to stretch her legs and kick the bars in warning.  
  
_No way was she being jabbed and sent way to be eaten in some creature's kitchen!_  
  
The vulture fell back with a loud squawk, floundering for a moment as it found its balance again, wobbling against its cane.  
  
Keeping its eyes fixed on her all the time, it scrambled back, hissing.  
  
“Blaudra, blaudra!” it snarled at her in a scratchy warped voice. She didn't understand a word, but she didn't care,  
  
All she cared about was that this might be her last chance to escape.  
  
Locking her forearms around the bars above her head so that she wouldn't slide down, she raised both legs and began to violently kick at the trapdoor.  
  
“Blaudra, blaudra! Kelfflinke!” the vulture continued shouting at her in increasing panic.  
  
At that exact moment the hinge cracked. Another kick, and it snapped, the trapdoor came loose, swinging down to now only hang by the rope still bound to the creature's closed claws. Seeing her opportunity, Wynn began to frantically pull herself free.  
  
"Blaudra!" For a moment the vulture creature began to come towards her, one arm outstretched to grab her.  
  
With a snarl, she swung one fist at it in warning, and the vulture-creature quickly changed its mind, moving back a few steps to keep a fair distance away from her.  
  
Wynn fell out of the cage, only just managing to catch hold of the bars so that she didn't hit the hard stone floor head first, twisting her arm painfully at the sudden force, her knees struck the floor first. Wincing, she pulled herself to her feet and looked around the room frantically for an exit.  
  
“Kelfflinke!” the vulture-creature yelled again, raising its walking cane warningly as it eyed her. She stared back. But then it turned away and began to shout. “skekNa! SKEKNA! GARTHIM!”  
  
The grinding and clicking sounds that immediately reverberated around the room told her that the clawed creatures were awakening once more. _She had to go now!_  
  
She had no time to think up a good plan, and broke into a run, charging towards where she could see the light coming down the spiral stairwell she had spotted earlier.  
  
A new shadow loomed in her path, another of the vulture creatures had appeared and was hurrying over to investigate what the commotion was. There was something fearsome about this one, all snarling with pointed teeth and a sharp metallic hook in place of one hand.  
  
It let out a fierce screech of anger and alarm as she ran past, narrowly avoiding its talons as it swiped at her.  
  
“GARTHIM!” both of them chorused behind her as she ran up the stairs. "GARTHIM!"


	2. Maze

Wynn had no idea where she was heading.  
  
Charging up the stairs, feeling the cold of the stone steps beneath her feet, she reached the top of the stairwell and found herself standing in a long empty corridor.   
  
It split in two directions, both looked as indistict to her as the other, but one had a window.  
  
A window through which she could see the open sky! _What if she could get out that way?_  
  
And it was this way that she chose to run.  
  
A figure suddenly appeared in the hallway ahead of her, stepping out from an adjacent room. Stooped and trying to shove a scroll into a large satchel upon its hip, it didn't even see her before she collided with them.  
  
They both went sprawling upon the floor, Wynn quickly rolling free and scrambling to her feet. She glanced down quickly at the individual she had knocked down. It was another of the vulture-creatures, three pairs of spectacles hung crookedly off its beak as it stared up at her aghast from the floor.  
  
“Intruder! Intruder in the castle!” it wailed as it scrambled to get away from her.  
  
To her surprise, she understood these words, but didn't stop to think about it. The one with the hook for a hand had just reached the top of the stairs and was already hurrying towards her. Wynn turned and ran the opposite direction.  
  
“Gelfling! Towering gelfling! How is this possible!?” she heard the spectacled creature yell, and already she could hear the approach of many other feet and the familiar clanking of the clawed-creatures.  
  
The window proved to be a dead-end though, it overlooked a dark moat some hundred feet or so below.  
  
She cursed and continued running.  
  
“General!” she heard one of the creatures behind her yell.  
  
Abruptly a particularly large vulture-creature lurched at her from out of an open doorway, missing her by mere millimeters she felt she ghost of its movement swipe at her hair.  
  
With a yelp, she ducked, and continued running.  
  
Up ahead there was a grand arched doorway leading in a well lit chamber with a high ceiling, she could see into it, full of red drapes and ornate decoration. Worryingly she could hear more voices inside.  
  
She turned sharply, and ran down a side corridor.  
  
There was a high-pitched shriek, a scream and a yell of surprise as she narrowly avoided crashing into three further vulture-creatures. But Wynn veered around them and kept on running.  
  
Behind her she could hear the increasing volume of voices as they yelled and squawked amongst themselves, she had lost the edge of surprise now, the more time passed the harder it would be for her to escape. There was probably no one left in the castle now that didn't know there was an intruder running through the halls.  
  
It was obvious to her that they hadn't expected her to be here, and now that they knew she was, it wouldn't be long until they began to come up with a coordinated attempt to capture her. And in running, not only was she tiring herself but she was also becoming increasingly disorientated.  
  
She needed to hide.  
  
Another small stairwell twisted up ahead, the supports were arched with a the space beneath them, with just enough room for her to crawl into. But with only one exit.  
  
Wynn took the chance, and hid, squeezing against the smooth cold stone and sliding out of sight. She needed to gather her thoughts, but first priorities first, she needed to evade recapture, and to do that she had to remain completely silent and still.  
  
Not a minute later, two of the vulture-creatures that had been chasing her ran up the very stair-well she was hidden beneath, she heard their rustling robes and sputtering breath but they didn't see her.  
  
Waiting another few minutes, she also then heard the creaking and clanking of the metallic clawed-creatures also passing overhead. Only once they were gone did she emerge, now with a plan.  
  
She had to return to the ground floor, and the only way she knew how was to retrace her steps. If she was quick, quiet and lucky, then she might be able to get out without anyone even noticing.  
  
But as she squirmed out of her hiding spot and slipped back into the corridor, her heart felt as if it had dropped. She wasn't alone.  
  
A whole group of little creatures, the potato-creatures dressed in burlap hoods,, were walking silently through the hallway.  
  
But to her surprise they didn't so much as blink at seeing her standing there. Blankly, they drifted around her, then continued onwards up the stairwell as if she wasn't even there. _Like ghosts…_  
  
She pushed the uncomfortable idea out of her mind and continued onwards. If the potato-creatures didn't care then all the better for her!  
  
...  
  
But, as it turned out, she didn't know the way back.  
  
Wynn knew she was definitely headed the wrong way when the corridor she was following opened out onto a circular balcony that ran around a large vaulted room below. Leaning out over the balcony and looking down, it appeared to her that it might have once been a ballroom below but the floors of which were now cluttered with piles of furniture and mouldering old throw rugs.  
  
Frowning she began to move quickly around this room, following the balcony, and passing a more of the little potato-creatures as she went - not one of them even glanced up to look at her.  
 _  
Perhaps like the clawed-creatures they were not truly alive?_  
  
The vultures ruled here, she could see that, everything else was just under their command.  
  
The sound of voices getting closer stopped her in her tracks. Though they were passing in the derelict ballroom below, she feared they might hear her above if she continued walking. Crouching down, so as not to be spotted, she listened in.  
  
They appeared to be having an argument of some sort, the sound of scoffing and muttering amongst the three vulture-creatures passing by below seemed to be amplified by the vaulted ceiling.  
  
“...it could work. The Emperor is not well, he may have to step down and let a successor take his place. If the vital essence can be saved until then...” said one bleating voice.  
  
“His successor will have the rights to drink its rejuvenating power...” continued a high-pitched voice. "What a clever plan, skekSil."  
  
“You're making a lot of assumptions, Chamberlain,” said a third voice, pompous and knowing.  
  
The remark earned a loud scoff of irritation from the high-pitched one.  
  
“It is simple enough, skekAyuk,” replied the bleater – skekSil – his voice lowering in annoyance. “And it's been done before, remember skekZok's wretched little pet?”  
  
“It didn't work," disagreed the third – skekAyuk. "She escaped.”  
  
“Don't question me!" squawked skekSil. "It would have worked if she had been caged, as I told his majesty many, many times...”  
  
By this point their voices were fading again, as they had left the room below. Their conversation had literally meant nothing to Wynn, despite the fact that she had understood every single word that they said. There had been something about the ruler of the vultures being unwell...the second half of the conversation had obviously needed context to be understood.  
  
There was a rapid skittering of tiny claws, and a beady-eyed animal very much resembling a rat ran past her feet. Instinctively she leapt back, a frown upon her face, watching the rodent scuttle frrom the room. Then she continued on her way around the balcony that encircled the big room below. Eventually she picked a door that ran off it at random, and began to follow the slow sloping steps down to another hallway.  
  
 _Damn, this place was like a maze! How did anyone ever find their way around here?_  
  
She followed yet another corridor, all the while dreading running into another of the vulture-creatures. But despite her fears, she heard and saw no one, which was surprising. Surely in a castle this big it should be bustling with people?  
  
Wynn paused for a while beside a window. After seeing that the ground outside was reachable she had ran over in a hurry, but now that she was closer she could see it was just an open courtyard contained within the castle walls. Just like the ballroom, the courtyard looked as if it had seen better days.  
  
The courtyard looked as if it could have been beautiful once, she could see a spiralling formation to the colours in the faded tiles, at either end there were large overgrown flowerbeds, and carved stone benches, and at the centre of it all was a tall statue. But just what the statue was of wasn't clear because it had been completely overgrown by thorny black vines, and these same vines grew over much of the courtyard, obscurring most of it from view.  
  
For a moment she wondered what this castle could have looked like in its better days, and couldn't help but wonder why it had fallen into such disrepair.  
  
Then another rat ran past her feet, bringing her back to reality and she grimaced.  
  
Turning away from the courtyard she continued on in search of a stairwell down, any would do, she just wanted to get back to the dungeon levels and get out.  
  
 _And then where to?_ She hadn't thought that far ahead yet.  
  
Wynn stopped to watch as ahead of her a small procession of burlap potato-creatures began to march out from a tiny door concealed in the wall, just high enough for them to walk through without knocking their heads. She considered following after them, at least then she would less lost in this maze of a castle.  
  
Wynn froze as she heard voices not far behind her. Another rat ran past her feet, but she ignored it this time. She listened carefully, trying to discern whether they were getting closer...  
  
...They were!  
  
 _She needed to get out of sight, quickly!_  
  
Hunkering down, she hurriedly eyed the little doorway the potato-creatures had used, and looked through it. She saw that it was actually more of a tunnel rather than a doorway, leading deep through the wall into another room beyond.  
  
Judging that she would be able to crawl through easily enough, Wynn dropped to her knees and shuffled forward, careful not to knock her head as she passed through the low doorway.  
  
The rustling of robes and thudding of footsteps were audible in the hallway behind her now. Not wanting to be be heard, Wynn stopped crawling and lay down about half-way through the tunnel, far enough through that she was out of sight. She hoped that no potato-creatures would need to use the tunnel, as she was essentially blocking it from use but hiding here.  
  
There was the scuttling of claws and a loud squeak, something about the size and shape of a rat ran up her back. Wynn cursed and shook the little creature off, disgusted and irritated. But she made no noise in fear of being discovered. The rat ran off.  
  
Back in the corridor she could hear at least two vultures speaking between themselves, different sounding than the last ones.  
  
“Somewhere around here...” said one in a shrill and ringing voice.  
  
“Better be, I'm growing tired of this chase!” replied the other in thunderous and rasping tones.  
  
Then to her horror she realised they had stopped walking.  
  
“In there,” hissed the shrill one.  
  
Wynn looked back over her shoulder, just in time to see one of the vulture-creatures crouching down at the end of the tunnel, they looked immense from this angle, its dark robes and plated armour blocking up the entire view from the tiny doorway.  
  
And there was no question as to whether she had been seen!  
  
She tried to get up and crawl out to the other side, she was already fairly deep into the tunnel, _it would be hard for it to reach-_  
  
A grip like iron locked around her ankle and suddenly she was grasping at the smooth stone floor in a fruitless attempt to stop herself from being pulled out.  
  
The vulture hauled her out of the tunnel with an angry bellow.  
  
For a split second she was simply lying on the floor of the hallway, she tried to leap away and run but then the grip was back, now locking around the back of her neck as she was pulled to her feet.  
  
Facing the big vulture-creature, Wynn struggled to wrench herself free, both hands gripping at the wrist that held her.  
  
She was abruptly pulled forwards, striking metal armour before being spun around so that she faced away, the elbow of one of its hard bony arms locking around her neck and holding her still. It's other hand, with some difficulty, managed to take hold of her wrists, restraining her as she fought to get free. Its grip was ridiculously strong and she felt pathetic. So she tried kicking it and instead struck armour.  
  
“Kelfflinke, blaudra! Blaudra, o fido dis noi!” the big vulture yelled at her incomprehensibly, then shook her fiercely for good measure, hard enough to make her teeth clack together.  
  
She didn't need to understand to know what it meant, the threat was clear enough and she stopped struggling. Breathing rapidly she looked between the one that had captured her, and the other also in the hall. It was the one with a hook for a hand, and at its feet, almost innocently, was the rat.  
  
Her eyes widened.  
  
 _It had been a trained animal?!_  
  
“Very big for a gelfling...” exclaimed the smaller one, then it looked up at the other. “What now, General?”  
  
“We return to skekTek, have it drained and present the essence to the Emperor under my name,” said the one holding her assuredly.  
  
The one with a claw for a hand regarded her suspiciously. “I don't think it's a gelfling,” it said with a sneer.  
  
“It matters not, the Emperor will appreciate the essence,” replied the other, but seemed to agree that she wasn't what they had thought she was.  
  
Remaining silent, she simply decided to stay that way until it became clear what was going to happen to her. At the moment, Wynn got the impression that they did not realise that she could understand them. Perhaps it could be an advantage?  
  
Wynn was marched back along the hall, the big one keeping her restrained. The smaller one led the way, but kept glancing back to make sure she hadn't escaped. The two knew where they were headed, and very quickly Wynn found that they were back in a hallway she recognised, the very one she had run down after she had first escaped.  
 __  
Freedom had looked so close...  
  
“skekNa, inform the Emperor that we've captured the intruder," the thunderous voice one said. "I will talk with skekTek, he should have sorted things by now.”


	3. The Court

As she was stiffly led back to the room from which she had first escaped, the clawed-creatures that were still there came to life, eyes glowing and jointed legs clicking as they rose from their crouched positions.  
  
Instinctively, Wynn began to struggle in her captor's grip, certain that she would be shredded to pieces if those clawed-creatures got anywhere near her again.  
  
“Garthim, stand down,” the General snarled, and they did. The huge hulking armored forms crouched back down upon the ground, and the glow from their crystalline eyes faded away once more.  
  
The armoured General continued onward, forcing her towards another room that adjoined to that of the one they were in, through an arched doorway through which she could see flickering lights on the walls.  
  
The smell struck her first, overwhelming with the stench of chemicals and of rot and decay.  
  
It was a circular room with a relatively low ceiling from which many black metal hooks hung. The walls were adorned with cages, overspilling with straw and fur, she could see animals of various sizes crushed into them. The rest of the room was crowded with several large tables covered in an assorted mess of objects, including stained glass beakers, cracked dishes, tubes, tools, tattered books and many strange implements which she couldn't recognise at all. On one of the tables, close to the centre of the room, was what appeared to be the headless remains of a large quadruped, already dissected.   
  
Dread filled Wynn, and her breath caught in her throat.  
  
 _This room looked like hell, and she didn't want to be here!_  
  
She struggled against her captor, bracing her feet against the ground and trying to resist being pushed forward. But he just huffed and shook her roughly again.  
  
“skekTek!” he bellowed, coming to a stop in the centre of the room. “skekTek, where are you?!”  
  
“General,” replied a nasal voice, and the first of the vultures that she had seen, the one with the walking cane, emerged from behind a cluttered desk. Wynn could not quite read the expression on his strange aged face, but he appeared to be uneasy.  
  
“I have captured the gelfling,” the General replied. “I want its essence drained and given to the Emperor, in my name!”  
  
“The gelfling?” skekTek was limping over now to inspect her.  
  
Wynn tried to take a step back when he approached, but the General kept a firm grip on her, claws tightening into the back of her neck in warning.  
  
“I don't have the right equipment yet, you'll have to restrain her,” skekTek tilted his head at the General and turned away. “There is a cage, my lord.”  
  
The General followed skekTek towards one edge of the room, just as crowded as the rest. Here there were three rounded dome shaped, a similar design to garthim wicker cages except each of them was as high as Wynn and in varying stages of disrepair. One of them had completely collapsed in on itself and was useless, the second was missing a large section off its front and had been filled with crates and books. Only the third remained in functional condition, and it was this into which she was shoved, head first. Quickly she was released and the door chained closed behind her.  
  
Through the low-light, the two vultures peered at her curiously.  
  
“Very tall for gelfling,” skekTek spoke aloud as he examined her. “Too many fingers. Face is too flat. Ears and eyes too small. Much too big for gelfling, I think. And where are her wings?”  
  
“skekNa doesn't think she's a gelfling either, but that shouldn't matter,” grunted the General.  
  
“I can drain her if that is what you wish, my liege, but she is no gelfling,” replied skekTek, ignoring Wynn once more. “But I will have to inform the Emperor, he wouldn't like it if he didn't know what he was drinking. Might think someone was trying to poison him...”  
  
The General huffed irritably but seemed to consider this point for a moment.  
  
“Ah, I will tell him now. You stay here,” the General commanded, and then lumbered off without a further word.  
  
He passed skekNa on his way out, who had just arrived, out of breath back in the chamber. skekNa nodded to the General quickly before waddling over to join skekTek in staring at Wynn in the cage.  
  
“Magner, kefflinke,” skekNa said to her, confusing her with that weird language again. skekTek watched curiously.  
  
“Magner, kefflinke, slavar staffer?” he repeated himself.  
  
Wynn stared back at him blankly.  
  
“I don't think she understands,” skekTek stated after a few moments of silence.  
  
“Slavar nii der tee gra lo ieeda fisiig onara,” skekNa continued, this time rather fiercely.  
  
Wynn saw the eyeridges of the other rise up in shocked amusement at the statement. Whatever it was that had been said, she got the impression it hadn't been very polite.  
  
But she had no clue what had been said, and so instead she tried to assess what would be the best course of action now. Did she have anything to lose in letting them know she could understand them? She knew they planned to drain her, whatever that meant, it didn't sound very nice.  
  
“Not a gelfling, try something else,” skekTek suggested. skekNa gave an irritated huff.  
  
“What is the point, she will be drained soon,” he complained, but complied anyway and spoke again, this time in a bubbling language that to Wynn sounded like a stream dancing over rounded pebbles. “Apopplo pliplia aplivuupo vee va?”  
  
“Not a podling,” hissed skekTek unhelpfully.  
  
“One more try, after this, I know no more tongues,” snarled skekNa, but this time he didn't speak. Instead he approached the cage, staring quite intently into her eyes. Wynn felt uncomfortable, and after looking at him waveringly for a few moments, she looked away.  
  
“Soul-speech?” skekTek seemed to question doubtfully. “Did it work?”  
  
“No,” skekNa confirmed.  
  
 _But perhaps if she could talk to them, reason with them, she could get herself out of this whole mess.  
_  
“I can understand you,” Wynn found herself speaking up before she realised it, but her voice didn't shake despite the unease she felt.  
  
They both fell back in surprise, skekNa glaring at her suspiciously while skekTek clacked his beak in confusion.  
  
“Why am I here? What is going on?” she continued.  
  
“It talks,” skekNa kept his one good eye fixed on her, but said no more. Indeed they both fell completely silent, observing her like she was some weird creature that they had never seen before, and quite possibly that was exactly what the case was.  
  
“Can I go?” she asked quietly.  
  
skekTek looked at her like she had grown a second head.  
  
“Go? Go where?” he questioned. “Not going anywhere, strange gelfling.”  
  
“We should drain her now, safer that way,” skekNa spoke up, looking away from her.  
  
“Unless you think you can hold her completely still while risking direct exposure to the refracted light of the crystal yourself, there is no way at the moment,” skekTek clipped back. “The restraints are too small.”  
  
 _Drain? Exposure? What were they talking about?_  
  
Wynn didn't know, but she knew it wasn't pleasant. They were ignoring her now, as if she was just an animal. She paced around the small cage, finding that she could not fully stand up in it without hitting her head. The old bars were wooden, bound together with just twine. Reaching up she took hold of one in her hand and tugged at it experimentally. It creaked loudly.  
  
“Chain restraints then, they will do,” skekNa said impatiently.  
  
“We must wait until the General gets back.”  
  
Wynn wrapped both arms around the bar, and raised her feet off the floor, there was a sharp crack and she abruptly dropped back down as the old wooden bar snapped in two, twine unwrapping it came away in her hands and hung loosely from the surrounding bars.  
  
The two vulture-creatures looked up at the sound, and on seeing the damage the cage has sustained let out several irritable squawks.  
  
“Stay where you are, creature,” skekNa warned with a snarl.  
  
“Hn, she's too big to be kept in here,” whined skekTek in worry.  
  
“She's not that big! Stop cowering,” skekNa countered. “Bigger than a gelfling? Yes! But bigger than a skeksis? No!”  
  
There was huffing from outside of the chamber, and a few seconds later the General appeared again. He immediately stomped over to them.  
  
“The Emperor wants her confined till morning” he stated. “The night is approaching fast, he doesn't want to deal with the issue now.”  
  
“That's not possible! She's already breaking up the old gelfling cage!” skekTek squawked. “If she gets left in there overnight she will break out and wreck my laboratory!”  
  
The General didn't appear to be listening. He leant forward, taking hold of the bars in his hands, to look more closely as their prisoner, his red eyes narrowed beneath a scowling brow. Wynn instinctively backed up against the other side of the cage. He was bigger than the others, broader and hairier, wearing metal armoured plates. Having already been shoved and shaken by him, Wynn knew to be wary of him.  
  
“What is she?” the General asked. “She looks almost like-” but he appeared to cut himself off here, and looked questioningly at skekTek.  
  
“Not a gelfling, that I'm sure of,” skekTek replied, and finally he addressed her again. “What are you?”  
  
“What am I?” Wynn hesitated for a moment, almost uncomprehending of the question. “I'm human. I am a human!”  
  
And she instantly knew they had never heard the word before. They looked between themselves in confusion, perhaps disbelief.  
  
“She speaks our language,” the General exclaimed.  
  
“And doesn't speak a word of gelfling,” skekNa added. “Doesn't seem very intelligent...”  
  
“What are you?” Wynn asked skekTek, trying to sound bold.  
  
“We are skeksis of course,” the General replied for him immediately. “I am skekUng. One of the 10 crystal lords, rulers of all of Thra!”  
  
“Why bother with introductions,” skekNa sneered. “Does the Emperor want her drained now?”  
  
“He wants her caged till morning,” skekUng repeated. “You can blame the Chamberlain for that. He spoke to the Emperor before me. He is up to something...”  
  
“But it's not possible! The gelflings cages are rotten with age, and she has already damaged the only complete one I had left,” skekTek complained. He let out a frustrated whine and limped away, disappearing from view around another overladen table, picking some narrow vial from a shelf as he went.  
  
“Then why not shove her in garthim basket or chain her to a pillar,” skekNa replied irritably, he looked questioningly at the General. “We have still have prison chambers in the west tower. Or perhaps the dungeons would suffice...”  
  
“We do not need to take such drastic measures,” skekTek replied as he appeared again, the tone of his voice suddenly calm, a glass of what appeared to be water in one hand. He approached the bars, though he appeared hesitant, he held out the glass to her. “This has all been a big misunderstanding. We are not your enemy, human. Perhaps all you need is a drink, must be very thirsty after a long day in the garthim basket?”  
  
Wynn was surprised as the sudden change in attitude, even the General and skekNa were giving skekTek weird looks, though they said nothing. But she was thirsty, and she gladly reached out between the bars for the glass and took it.  
  
 _Perhaps if she proved she was harmless they wouldn't be so aggressive._  
  
“Thank you,” she said quietly, and lifted the glass to her lips to drink.  
  
But then she realised something was wrong. And stopped. It was in the way that skekTek was looking at her, head tilted to one side curiously, expectantly, and the other two suddenly falling so quiet. Wynn sniffed at the glass's contents, and immediately wrinkled her nose at what she smelled.  
  
It wasn't an unpleasant smell, it was mouth-wateringly sweet, fruity even, but it was definitely NOT just water.  
  
“What is this?” she questioned, and the irritated look that flit across skekTek's face told her all she needed to know.  
  
“Water,” he said a little too slowly. “Spring water. You need it now.”  
  
“This isn't water,” she replied, holding the glass away from herself.  
  
“Don't be so ungrateful,” skekTek replied irritably. “Drink it.”  
  
“If it's water then prove it,” she held the glass back out through the bars to him. “Drink some yourself.”  
  
skekTek scowled at her but snatched the glass back nonetheless. He raised it to his beak, but then hesitated and silently offered it to skekNa instead.  
  
skekNa took one sniff of the glass though, and a look of disgust crossed his face. Without warning he swung one arm violently, knocking the glass and its contents flying across the room; skekTek letting out a small gasp of fear.  
  
“Argh!” skekNa seemed physically repelled by the strong smell. “I'm not drinking moonberry just to prove a point!”  
  
“This is getting us nowhere!” growled skekUng loudly. “skekTek, you are coming with me to speak with the Emperor! skekNa, keep guard until we return!”  
  
…  
  
The time in which she waited for their return felt as if it was stretching into hours.  
  
Wynn at first had waited in apprehension, fearing that the skeksis might simply decide to have her killed to sort the problem out. The tense atmosphere in the laboratory wasn't helping either, the overwhelming strong smells in the chamber were beginning to give her a headache, and skekNa kept glaring at her, though he never said a word.  
  
But as more and more time passed, her apprehension and fear faded, and she began to feel just impatient to get the whole thing over with.  
 _  
What was taking so long?!_  
  
Growing bolder in her boredom, she summed up the courage to try talking to the one-eyed skeksis.  
  
“What is moonberry?” she asked him quietly.  
  
skekNa ignored her, and remained sneering at the wall.  
  
Wynn didn't bother again. But fortunately at that point, the others finally returned. The General in the lead, looking both angry and out of breath. skekTek lagged behind him, staggering against his walking cane.  
  
“Well, what does the Emperor say?” skekNa snarled.  
  
skekTek gestured at the silently to the General, but he ignored the suggestion and walked right up to the front of the cage.  
  
“You are to speak to the Emperor,” he addressed her directly.  
  
“WHAT?!”  
  
skekNa shouted the very same thought that Wynn had at the statement.  
  
For a moment she stood still and thought about the situation.  
 _  
The leader of these skeksis wanted to speak to her?_  
  
It was a surprise, but perhaps a good one. It meant they weren't going to simply have her imprisoned or worse for intruding. But how could she explain her situation? She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten here... Wynn tried not to be intimidated and see it as an opportunity. If she could talk with the leader of the skeksis, and reason with him, perhaps this whole misunderstanding could be resolved quickly and easily, and she would be allowed to go on her way.  
  
 _Maybe,_ she thought optimistically, _maybe they could even help her._  
  
“The Emperor wants to ask you some questions, and if he is satisfied with the answers then he has a fair offer for you,” the General continued. “But if you attempt to run, or cause trouble again, this offer will be withdrawn. Do you understand?”  
  
“I understand,” Wynn replied earnestly. “Do I go now?”  
  
“You're not going anywhere, impudent whelp!” skekNa snapped at her.  
  
“Silence, skekNa,” the General spoke up. “It is as the Emperor has ordered. She is to be left unbound and unharmed, at least until she has spoken to his majesty.”  
  
“An unwise decision,” skekTek chipped in. “A draining, just a bit of one, would render her much more complacent.”  
  
“Don't question the Emperor, blame the Chamberlain,” the General snapped, he was already unlocking the door of the cage – skekTek looked uneasy. “What are you waiting for, get out!”  
  
Wynn very hesitantly moved forward, keeping her head bowed as she moved around the large skeksis' wrathful gaze.  
  
“skekNa, you take the lead,” the General ordered, pointing towards the exit. With a scowl, the one-eyed skeksis walked ahead of them, Wynn following meekly after him with the General close behind. skekTek was followed last of all, the metal of his walking cane clinking loudly upon the paved stone floor.  
  
The ascent back up the stairs was awkwardly silent, Wynn doing her best to keep a fair distance ahead of the skeksis behind her but at the same time had to be so careful not to tread on skekNa's torn trailing robes.  
  
Soon they were back on the first corridor at the top of the stairs. Now the halls were empty, but she could hear a lot of voices, perhaps more than before, from the big room ahead, obscured from her sight yet by half-closed doors.  
  
skekNa waddled rapidly ahead, shoving the doors open without ceremony, revealing an immense room overflowing with colour, golds and reds, and filled with the chattering of voices. Ahead she could see many skeksis, and as the doors opened, they stopped talking and turned to look at the new arrivals.  
  
Wynn hesitated, and stopped dead in her tracks. Her back bumped against the armoured belly of the General and she earned an irritated growl for her efforts.  
  
She was on her own now, Wynn knew, she would have to face the Emperor of the skeksis with only her own courage, her own strategy. Retreat was not an option here.  
  
“Your royal highness, we bring with us, the gelfling-creature...” skekNa squawked, stepping aside so that Wynn was clearly visible to everyone there.  
  
Wynn struggled to take in all the sights at once. The room was huge, with a high ceiling many, many times her height. Highly decorated it was covered in thick wall hangings, drapes and curtains, mainly in red but there were other colours too, gold and green. The skeksis themselves she noticed now that she wasn't running for her life, were immensely decorative themselves, all dressed in many, many layers of trailing robes that spilled out across the floor, many wearing decorative pins, jewels and gems upon their ornate clothing.  
  
Towards the back and centre of the room was a strange structure that could only be described as a throne. Made up of complex twisting and twining structures, much like the vines she had seen in the forest but at the same time with the resemblance of tusks, the decorative seat was currently occupied by skeksis dressed in extravagant red and golden robes. Clasped in one hand was a gold sceptre.  
  
This individual had to be the Emperor.  
  
But Wynn was shocked at his state of appearance. He looked noticeably older than many of the skeksis there, and in a much poorer state of his health. The septa between his nostrils had atrophied away, leaving a strange gap in the forefront of his dull cracked beak. His faded blue eyes were fixed in dark deep sunken sockets, and what few strands of hair he had left hung about his head limply. Despite his regal robes, in body the Emperor did not resemble his title.  
  
Trying not to stare as she walked forward to stand before the Emperor, she glanced around at the gathered crowd.  
  
There were not quite as many as she had first thought. In total there were just 10 of them in the room. And she wondered if perhaps this was a judge panel for a court in which she was to be trialled. The rest of the skeksis that no doubt inhabited the castle must have been sent elsewhere in the meantime.  
  
She recognised a few of them. The little one with many pairs of glasses that she had knocked down earlier, and the tall one with the tuft of red hair that had screeched as she ran past. There were other distinct individuals though, a tall one dressed in red and gold with a strange lunate hoop of metal upon his head, while another dressed in red, white and black watched with an odd smile from beside the throne. In fact now that she saw them all, though at first glance they had looked nearly all identical to one other, she saw that each was dressed as distinctly different from another that there could be no mistaking the different individuals.  
  
More distracting though was every single one of them was staring at her, and in that moment she felt like prey. Hooked beaks, pointed teeth and staring eyes everywhere she looked, but she kept her confidence as she came to a standstill before the throne, the lumbering General still following close behind her.  
  
The Emperor stared down at her intently. Wynn began to wonder what she should do now. _Bow?_ Bowing to an Emperor sounded like the right thing to do, but what if bowing wasn't part of their culture? She didn't want to accidentally offend anyone, nor did she particularly was to expose the back of her unguarded neck. So she stayed where she was and averted her gaze.  
  
“You can speak, can't you?” the Emperor broke the silence, startling her into looking up at him again. Despite his sickly appearance, the Emperor's voice retained something regal about it that demanded obedience. “Gelfling-creature... But not gelfling, or so skekTek tells me, you call your kind a different name. And I believe him, now that I see you for myself. What are you?”  
  
“I-I'm human,” she stuttered, then clenched her jaw in annoyance at her hesitancy.  
  
“Human?” the word ran around the room, and it was clear to her that the word was new to them.  
  
“Human...” the statement was almost a question, but it was voiced with both disbelief and suspicion. “Where is your clan?”  
  
“I don't know,” Wynn managed to keep her voice steady. “I don't know where I am. I don't recognise anything from the land here. I don't even know what this place is...you majesty.”  
  
The skeksis began to mutter amongst themselves earnestly.  
  
It wasn't a satisfactory answer, but she didn't know anything else. This was the bad luck of her predicament, that not only did they want to know how she had got here, but she didn't even know the answer herself.  
  
“She hides the truth!” one of the skeksis shouted, a tall individual with the lunate hoop of gold upon his head. “She lies, my liege!”  
  
Several of the other skeksis squawked in agreement, but the Emperor's expression remained unfazed. He raised one hand, and quickly they all fell silent.  
  
“This is the Castle of the Crystal,” he answered, voice steady and unwavering. “But perhaps you hail from distant lands.”  
  
Wynn quickly nodded in agreement.  
  
“But you are here now, and you are alone.”  
  
The last word hung in the air like bait. The other skeksis were chattering amongst themselves again, but the Emperor kept his gaze level, waiting for her response.  
  
“I think that is the case,” she shrugged uneasily, and glanced sideways as skekTek moved forward to stand beside skekNa. “I didn't mean to intrude, those clawed-creatures, the garthim, they took me here. I'm sorry for causing alarm.”  
  
Her words seemed to have some effect, the Emperor no longer looked as distrusting, but perhaps she was being overly optimistic, the other skeksis still regarded her suspiciously as before.  
  
“And this is exactly why I have an offer for you. A very generous offer,” the Emperor told her sternly. “You are alone now, with no clue to where you are and nowhere to go. But, you could stay here, earn your keep by working, and you would have a place to sleep and food to eat.”  
  
Wynn was surprised. For a moment she was suspicious as to why they would offer her such a job, and remembered the dead-eyed potato-creatures for a moment, but then she tried to think more clearly. There had obviously been a mix-up, she hadn't been meant to be taken to the castle, the skeksis hadn't expected her to be here, and so far, other than some completely circumstantial aggression that to an extent was understandable, she had no reason to distrust the skeksis.  
  
And as far as she could see, it did sound like a fair offer. She ignored the part of her mind warning her what might happen if she turned it down.  
  
“I would be very grateful for that, your majesty,” she answered clearly. “What would you want me to do?”  
  
“skekNa will assign you tasks,” the Emperor dismissed the question as if bored. “What is more important is the ground rules that you must follow. If you break them, then… we won't need you any more.”  
  
The last sentence was said without malice, but the threat struck home. Several of the skeksis muttered in agreement with their Emperor's statement. Wynn could see through the charade, it was impossible not to, and wondered just what she was agreeing to.  
  
“First of all, you must swear allegiance to me,” the Emperor raised one bony index finger. “After that, the rules are simple. You will not leave the castle and you will obey all orders given to you – mine above all others.”  
  
“Yes, your majesty.”  
  
“Also importantly,” the Emperor gave her a suspicious look. “You are not to attempt to harm anyone, as I heard you tried earlier with the Scroll-Keeper.”  
  
“In my defence, it was an accident, I didn't see him in time,” Wynn said quickly.  
  
The skeksis with the three sets of spectacles upon his beak let out a squawk of indignation, several of the other skeksis chortled at his expense, but the Emperor was not amongst them.  
  
“Only to speak when spoken to,” he chastised her. “If I hear that you've been causing trouble, there will be consequences for you.”  
  
“I understand, your majesty,” Wynn answered quietly and did her best to look humble.  
  
But it apparently wasn't enough.  
  
“Hm, no manners it seems,” the Emperor said sternly, and gestured offhandedly to the General.  
  
Abruptly Wynn felt that same clawed crushing grip around the back of her neck again, this time forcing her head down into a bow. She struggled only for a moment causing several of the skeksis to laugh, but then fuming and frightened she stayed still until she had been released from the General's grip.  
  
“You are to bow when addressing any lord,” the Emperor continued. “But especially an emperor. It would do well for you not to forget that.”  
  
“Yes, your majesty,” and this time she ended the sentence with a quick bow, feeling humiliated. It didn't look like there would be any easy way of getting out of this...  
  
Biting back her anger and fear, she decided to play along for now, perhaps an opportunity would present itself at a later time.  
  
She dropped to one knee in a deep bow to the Emperor.  
  
“I swear my allegiance to the Emperor of the skeksis,” she pledged, keeping her gaze firmly upon the patterned castle floor. “I will obey all orders given to me. I will not attempt to leave the castle, or hinder or harm anyone under his great and powerful rule.”  
  
Her abrupt statement seemed to stun the skeksis into silence. After a moment, the Emperor seemed to fluff up with pride, but the reaction she got from the rest of the court ranged from looks of confusion, to distrust, to even unadulterated disgust.  
  
“And so be it, human-creature,” he exclaimed. “Feel pride in knowing that you work here now! skekNa, take her to the western tower, she will stay there till morning.”  
  
Wynn did her best to look indifferent rather than alarmed as the sneering one-eyed skeksis approached her again. Hastily she got to her feet, but was unable to stop herself from leaning away from him.  
  
“Follow,” he said simply, and turned to leave.  
  
Wynn bowed again to the Emperor quickly, but he didn't notice, now preoccupied talking with the smiling skeksis dressed in red. She glanced hastily around the throne room again, managing a small forced smile at the others there before hurriedly following the hunched shape of skekNa out of the high chamber.  
  
As they left, Wynn heard their mutters get louder as the court began to talk more freely amongst themselves again. Their voices fading again as she moved further away.  
  
They walked in silence. It was clear to her that skekNa did not want to be in charge of leading her, he probably didn't want her to be in the castle at all given the suggestion he had made earlier of throwing her in a dungeon – so she stayed quiet for now.  
  
Instead she focused on trying to memorise the layout of the castle she had seen so far, knowing that it would be vital she knew this in the future.  
  
Following skekNa down several corridors, they reached a stairwell that was several floors deep. Passing several small windows on the way down, Wynn saw that it was pitch-black outside now, the three strange suns hidden below the horizon.  
  
Eventually they reached a landing from which several closed doors formed an arch in front of them, and in the wall beside each was a tiny tunnel which Wynn now knew were for the passage of the little potato-creatures.  
  
skekNa approached the nearest of the doors and reached down to his hip, lifting up a rusty old key chain attached to his belt with his hook. Flicking through several keys he eventually picked one and opened the door, but there he stepped back and didn't go through.  
  
“Get in,” he snarled at her.  
  
Wynn peeked in cautiously. The room was very dark, illuminated only by moon and starlight filtering in through the faded glass windows, and smelled mouldy. From the ceiling there appeared to be a series of strange bulging pods hanging from twined lengths of robe, each pod about the size of a large cat.  
  
“What is this place, lord skekNa?” she asked, straining her eyes to see the room more clearly.  
  
“I said get in,” skekNa snapped impatiently. “Or are you already disobeying orders?”  
  
“I just want to know what this place is-AH” Wynn was interrupted as skekNa abruptly shoved her forwards.  
  
Stumbling, she only just had enough time to turn around before the door was slammed closed behind her, skekNa on the other side.  
  
“As a servant I should know!” she squawked, alarmed at being sealed in the dark room.  
  
“As a SERVANT?!” skekNa cackled from the other side of the door. “You're not a servant, you're a slave!”  
  
He was still laughing as he locked the door and left. Wynn waited braced against the door until she couldn't hear him any more, then she thumped the door with frustration, and turned around to look at the room she was in.  
  
It was a long rectangular room with a smooth worn stone floor, which was bitingly cold beneath her feet. The pods she had seen from the outside, took up much of the room, lined in perfect rows hanging from the ceiling.  
  
Cautiously she approached one of the pods. It was made of coarse faded fabric, thick twine held its edges loosely together except the top half from which she could see something grey, pitted and rounded.  
  
Two small milky-white eyes suddenly opened in the grey thing.  
  
Wynn cursed and stumbled back in surprise, but she realised what it was now. The room was a dormitory, each of the strange pods were actually odd-looking hammocks, and each of which slept one of those strange tiny potato-creatures. Creepy, but harmless, she reassured herself.  
  
Out of curiousity she approached and looked out the windows, though she had to heartily scrub at the glass with the end of her shirt before she could see out.  
  
 _Three moons hung in the sky.  
_  
Wynn decided she had had enough weirdness for one day and tried to find out where she was supposed to sleep. As it turned out, there had been no provisions made for her, and skekNa hadn't cared to explain what she could do about it.  
  
The hammocks in which the podlings slept were far too small for her, but the bare stone floor was too cold and hard to lie on.  
  
She fumbled around the long room for a while, feeling out the wall until her eyes adjusted enough to the dark to see. Eventually she found a handle to a cupboard, and though the doors had been chained shut, the wood of the frame proved so rotten that when she tried tugging at the chain, the doors simply fell out of its frame and crashed to the floor.  
  
 _Just what was with this place and everything being in such a bad state?_  
  
Inside the cupboard she found many more hammocks, like the ones that the podlings were already using, but strangely enough there were also larger ones, but even these were far too small for her to use. So Wynn did the next best thing, she emptied the entire cupboard's contents out onto the floor and slept on top of that.


	4. Silence

In the distance, there was the chiming of a bell, loud and insistent.  
  
Wynn tugged the coarse fabric she was lying on over her head to muffle the sound, twisting her stiff cold body into a more comfortable position on the hard lumpy mound that she was lying on.  
  
Then, the bell stopped.  
  
Her awakening was oddly reminiscent of the day before, the sound in her ears was like the rustling of leaves, but this time the source of the sound was the tugging and scuffing of burlap cloth upon the cracked stone floor, and the footsteps of many small feet.  
  
And she remembered where she was and what had happened.  
  
Looking around the long rectangular dormitory full of bean shaped hammocks, the room stayed insistently in focus. The surprise she felt at finding herself still within, what she had assumed, an odd dream was not as great as she would have imagined.  
  
Though it looked a lot emptier than the night before.  
  
There were only a few of the podlings left in the room, and slowly, in silence, they were filing out of the room through the little tunnel in the wall.  
  
By the time she had clumsily gotten to her feet, stretching aching limbs and rolling stiff shoulders, the podlings were all gone.  
  
She hurried after them, heading for the larger door and trying to turn the gargoyle-faced handle. It rattled, but wouldn’t budge, still locked.  
  
Banging violently against the door and kicking it achieved nothing either.  
  
Wynn fumed at her predicament.   
  
_A plan, she needed a plan,_ she tried to think more rationally. _Figure out the layout of the castle, and maybe the land beyond. Then when the chance presented itself, she was out of here._  
  
Pressing her ear to the door, she listened, wondering if anyone would have heard her attempt to break out.  
  
The castle was silent.  
  
She staggered over to the window and looked out where she had cleaned away the grime the night before, and saw that the sky was a dark blue. None of the three suns had even risen yet, though dawn didn’t seem far off. Standing on the tips of her toes she was able to look out further and saw that the ground looked very distant below, and barren, dry and grey.  
  
But there was forest beyond, she knew that. It was just a question of getting back there.  
  
Just what was this weird place? A silent, near empty castle, in the middle of a desolate landscape? Why was it out here? And where was everyone?  
  
The wind howled faintly as it thudded against the window, and the ancient cold glass gave a warning ‘crack’ when she tapped upon it. Wynn dropped back down to her feet, and returned to her “bed”.  
  
Wynn waited for perhaps an hour, as the light outside slowly got brighter. Though with no way of measuring the time, she could only guess. She was hungry, thirsty and cold. Impatiently she began to wonder if she had been forgotten. _Perhaps deliberately forgotten…_  
  
She eyed the podling tunnel from which they had left before, and knew she could fit through, a security measure that skekNa appeared to have overlooked the night before. But should she leave now? skekNa hadn’t exactly said she couldn’t leave…  
  
After a few moments hesitation, she made up her mind, and crawled out through the narrow space.  
  
The stairwell was silent outside, no voices, nothing.  
  
Looking upwards she saw the ceiling was thick with cobwebs, and she could feel the cracked steps beneath her feet had broken away in places as she began to ascend the oddly shallow stairs.   
  
Halfway up the tower she bumped into large procession of podlings already on the stairwell, Wynn was forced to slow down, as the podlings in her path appeared to have some difficulty navigating the stairs.  
  
“Hey?” she called to the nearest one. “Excuse me, where are you all going?”  
  
The podling did not even appear to hear her, none of them even looked back.  
  
She hurried up and hesitantly took hold of the podling’s shoulder to get its attention. The podling was even smaller than she had imagined, beneath the thick burlap robes the creature’s shoulder felt like that of a china doll, bony and fragile beneath her grasp.  
  
“Hey,” she tried again. And this time, the podling she had stopped, turned slowly, gazing up at her with unblinkingly wide empty eyes.  
  
“Can you understand me?” she asked, smiling down at the odd little creature.  
  
There was no reaction, the podling didn’t move, even blink, to indicate that it had heard what she said. Though it appeared to be listening.  
 _  
Perhaps it simply couldn’t understand her…  
_  
“Never mind,” she left the tiny skeletal creature behind, and hurried up the steps to catch up with the others.  
  
As they headed up the stairwell the group can began to diffuse, the little creatures splitting off into groups. One half of the group continued ascending the stairs, up towards where she knew the skeksis were, while the others went off down another floor which she was not familiar with. She followed the latter, not wishing to bump into any of the skeksis just yet.  
  
Not that she would have known they were there! From all she could hear and see right now, there might not have been another living being in the entire castle except for the mute podlings!  
  
Wynn tried to map the path she was taking in her head, and found herself wishing she had a piece of chalk or something to mark her way, these corridors were excessive!  
  
Eventually the procession seemed to begin to slow down.  
  
She could hear noise now, low hissing, and the occasional rattling of metal against metal. They had reached a big rounded room, the ceiling of which was ornately decorated with strange bone-like architecture, the complicated pattern repeated itself over and over, tinged a dark brown by age, steam and oil. Cauldrons, pots and numerous implements gave the place away to be a kitchen, steam billowed up from boiling pans, fat spat in sizzling pans. Numerous podlings were already present, working busily.  
  
The smell of cooking food was mouth-watering.  
  
Standing more alertly, she looked around the kitchens. Things were more alive here, sounds, smells and sights, despite the drab colours and the almost mechanical way the podlings moved.  
  
Wynn leaned against the nearest cupboard, it was podling-height and she had to crouch down to pull open the miniscule door. A quick look over her shoulder confirmed to her that none of the podlings were going to stop her, none even seemed to notice that she was there.  
  
It was stacked full of tiny pots and jars, she opened the lid of one and found a red powder that smelt of something like almonds and sugar. She opened another, which was bright yellow and smelt strongly of pepper. Inspection of a few further jars all proved to have similar contents, they were all spices, but nothing like any spices she was familiar with.  
  
Seeing that it wasn’t immediately edible, she moved on.  
  
The next cupboard she opened was a lot higher than the first, and actually turned out to be a set of doors into a walk-in pantry, where there were crates crammed full of odd colourful shapes, and the shelves full of assorted large jars and small barrels.  
  
 _Jackpot!_  
  
Wynn spent the next few minutes sampling all the different fruit cautiously, some were surprisingly sweet while others were horribly bitter. There were dried meats having from the ceiling, preserved in salt. Wynn sampled these as well.  
  
A loud booming voice abruptly began to shout within the kitchen.  
  
Practically jumping out of her skin at the noise, Wynn span on her heel. Realising the compromising situation she was in, Wynn hurried out of the pantry, slamming the doors shut behind her.  
  
And then nearly collided with a large lumbering form.  
  
“Oh!” the skeksis exclaimed, and seemed to nearly trip upon his robes.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she apologised quickly, sidestepping away from the pantry. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I was just following the little erm… podlings.”  
  
This skeksis, who through a combination of his robes and weight, seemed to nearly be as wide as he was tall, just stared back at her wide-eyed.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she repeated, she gestured back towards the arched door she had come through originally. “I just followed...”  
  
The skeksis didn’t answer. Only his eyes moved, darting about to follow her movement closely, his heavy jowls moving as he swallowed by reflex.  
  
“I’m sorry, I’ll just be leaving,” she began to back towards the door.  
  
“No,” the skeksis finally spoke, his haughty voice wavering. “Don’t go anywhere.” And then he was bustling back out of the kitchen, his robes dragging noisily on the floor behind him, the huge elaborate carapace display more like a float in a parade than clothing. He barked something at the little podling creatures as he left, and like clockwork each stopped what they were doing. Mechanically, as one, they turned to stare up at her with their empty white eyes.  
  
When Wynn moved she found that all their little eyes followed her, some even moved a few steps closer so as to keep her in their sights. She decided to wait.  
  
A few minutes passed, and then she heard the hurried shuffling of robes again. Not a moment later the sneering form of skekNa waddled into the kitchen, not far behind him she could the fatter skeksis descending the stairs, trying to keep up.  
  
“Aha, you’ve been causing trouble!” skekNa snarled, and he stormed up to her, trying to intimidate her. But now in the daylight and without her disorientation, Wynn was not as cowed. He was a lot shorter than she had realised, they were not even eye-level, though perhaps this didn’t make him any less dangerous.  
  
“No harm was intended,” she didn’t bow to him this time, but this wasn’t so much out of defiance as it was of fear that the snarling skeksis might attempt to hit her.  
  
He stared at her a few moments more, perhaps challenging her. Wynn averted her gaze to the floor. Eventually skekNa turned away, and began to leave the way he had come.  
  
“Follow,” he barked at her.  
  
Wynn hurried after him, passing the fat skeksis in the hallway outside, he still said nothing, just stared worriedly after her.  
  
“You’re not to go wandering around the castle on your own,” skekNa warned. “Frightened skekAyuk, the big coward that he is…”  
  
“It wasn’t intentional.”  
  
“There will be consequences if you cause trouble again,” he looked back at her fiercely with his one good eye. “Personally, I think you should be locked up! I don’t know what you are, and I don’t trust you! Know that if you get caught wandering again, I will set the garthim on you!”  
  
They were on the habited floors now, Wynn recognised them, though she saw no skeksis this time. They passed some podlings heading in the opposite direction, skekNa grabbed one and yanked away the small broom it had been carrying. Wordlessly he shoved the broom into her arms, it was no bigger than a feather duster.  
  
“Your arrival couldn’t have been at a worse time,” skekNa growled, and Wynn got the impression she wasn’t expected to answer back. “Very bad timing. Very bad.”  
  
He didn’t elaborate why.  
  
Eventually she was led to an immense round room, passing one of the garthim, still and dead as a statue at the doorway. She immediately recognised the room from the night before with the surrounding balcony overhead – and now that she could see it from below, she saw that there was actually several tiers of balconies above. What could once have been a big open room, perhaps a ballroom or a large dining room, maybe even an amphitheatre, was now completely cluttered with piles upon piles of chairs, rugs and old tables. All of which was covered in a thick layer of dust.  
  
“There are garthim are situated throughout the castle, they will crush you if you wander again,” skekNa snarled, and then gestured to the immense room with one clawed glove. “You are to deal with this. You have until sundown.”  
  
“But what am I supposed to do with this?!” Wynn exclaimed, but he was already leaving. “This job is immense!”  
  
“Then you better get started,” was his parting remark.  
  
Infuriated, Wynn began to follow after him, but as soon as she approach the arched doorway, the lone garthim began to reanimate, a cold glow brightening behind its eyes.  
  
Thinking the better of it, she retreated back into the room.  
  
…  
  
The job would have been literally impossible to complete in a day. The mountain of odds and ends clearly had been accumulating for many years, and then like in a hoarder’s home, nothing stored had ever been removed.  
  
But she tackled the job with determination.  
  
First thing was first, she needed to see what she was working on, and the thick layer of dust – so thick in some places that she could write it in – needed to go first. Without anything but her hands and the tiny podling broom, she settled with simply focusing on one part of the room and sweeping all the dust off the nearest furniture and setting it the right way up.  
  
Not all of it was furniture though, and Wynn got quite a shock when she lifted a crate full of dusty old bottles only for a family of grey tasselled creatures to scatter around her feet in a panic, the crate having apparently been their home.  
  
In fact, there were several animal nests amongst the debris, and many of the creatures living there were not happy to be disturbed. One, a spiny jet-black creature with yellow-pointed teeth, tried to bite her, but sunk its small fangs into the end of her broom instead. She let go of it with a shudder and watched the creature run off.  
  
The quietness of the castle struck her as odd again. Even up here, on what she had supposed was an inhabited floor, things were quiet. Occasionally she thought she could hear the distant sounds voices, but most of the time she could hear nothing at all.  
  
But perhaps the quietness of the castle was not entirely down to it being empty.  
  
So light was the rustling of his robes and short footsteps, that she did not hear him at first amongst the squeaking of rodents and the crashing of furniture. Only when there was a rasping cough, sounding akin to a piece of paper being torn, did she notice she had company.  
  
Compared to the other skeksis, all dress in bright though rusty colours, the skeksis before her looked more akin to a book that had been left to in the sun for too long. The browns, golds and white of his robes were all faded and dirtied, so much that the colours were nearly indistinguishable from one another.  
  
Small, with delicate narrow features very unlike that of any of the other skeksis she had seen here, but it was the three pairs of spectacles upon his beak that made him immediately recognisable. This was the same skeksis she had accidentally knocked down the day previously.  
  
He didn’t look too happy to see her.  
  
Wynn realised she was in a rather awkward situation. Was she expected to say something, or was she supposed to continue working? She decided to take the harder option.  
  
“I’m sorry about what happened yesterday, I hope I didn’t hurt you,” she apologised. “Lord skekOk, was it?”  
  
“Hurt me? No, didn’t hurt me. You crushed me, oaf,” he spoke snippily, tilting his head so that his three pairs of spectacles aligned. “Something I’m hardly likely to forget.”  
  
“I was running for my life,” she replied. “I didn’t see you.”  
  
“Didn’t see me? What is this, a joke? That skekOk is so small that no one even sees him, hmm?” the irritable little creature disregarded her explanation, puffing up his minute chest, he attempted to look bigger. “You, creature, have no manners. You are not skeksis, therefore you must show me more respect.”  
  
“I’m sorry, my lord,” Wynn replied, trying to placate him. “It was not intentional."  
  
The irritable little creature merely scoffed, turning his beak up at her as he turned away, then scurried back out of the room.  
  
…  
  
The work dragged on for hours, soon Wynn was just hoping someone would pass through the room again just so something would distract her from the boredom. Not that she was completely alone, skekNa’s spy creature was tailing her, she could see its beady black eyes glinting in the shadows as it kept an eye on her.  
  
And there was one other.  
  
She noticed him a few times, it was hard not to, his heavy movements were hardly quiet. The deep puffing of breath and dragging of his overladen robes gave the General’s position away every time he was near. He never actually came into the room, nor did he say anything. He kept his distance, strutting and huffing around the garthim outside, then vanishing again.  
  
Presumably he was just there to make sure she was too. But was unsettling to say the least.  
  
By now it was dark outside, and the only light within the castle were several glowing lamps that had mysteriously seemed to have lit themselves. When she tried to inspect how, she found all she could see within the lamps were tiny fragments of crystal fixed within the glass. There were no sign of wires.  
  
At some point the damn rat spy creature, still running around her feet, got into a loud squealing fight with some of the other creatures that she had disturbed from their nesting sight. She found some amusement in seeing the spy creature flee from the room.  
  
Unlike skekOk, she could hear her next visitors’ voices long before she could see them.  
  
She became aware of two voices. One was low, almost harmonious, the other was a loud rapid chatter. Presently two skeksis came into view. Wynn recognised the skeksis from the kitchens, and with him was a taller more willowy skeksis with a bright tuft of red hair upon its head.  
  
“Stop. Stop here,” skekAyuk stopped at the archway, lagging behind the other. “This is close enough.”  
  
“But I want to see, I want to see,” chattered the other excitedly, he (maybe she? Wynn was uncertain) was a very hunched skeksis, with the longest fluttering eyelashes that she had ever seen.  
  
“You have seen, now let’s go,” said skekAyuk, trying to encourage the other to come back.  
  
“Oh, what strange attire...” the other one remarked, moving closer to look at her. Wynn self-consciously glanced over her clothes, which still just consisted of a nightshirt and pyjamas trousers, both which were filthy and torn from her scramble through the forest. “I wonder what their significance is?”  
  
“He’s asking you a question,” skekAyuk suddenly barked at her pompously, startling her. “What is the significance of your robes?”  
  
“Yes, do tell,” the fluttery eyed-lashed one asked.  
  
“My robes?” Wynn decided to answer in honestly, a tact she would later learn to avoid. “Nothing, my lords, they’re just nightrobes.”  
  
“Nightrobes?” the effeminate one exclaimed, raising a lacy gloved hand to his face as if embarrassed.  
  
“Hmph,” skekAyuk grunted dismissively, he turned leaned towards the other, even giving him a little shove. “Come now, skekEkt, your curiosity is sated.”  
  
“No, no, stop bossing,” the other one fretted, but before an argument could break out there was the sound of someone approaching in the hall. There was a clack-clacking of hard shoes against the stone floor. The two stopped fighting and looked towards the sound.  
  
“Someone is coming,” muttered skekAyuk.  
  
“We’re not supposed to be here,” skekEkt agreed.  
  
The two gave each other a fearful look, then without a word they hurried out of the room, gracelessly floundering in a panic. Leaving Wynn alone to await the approach of the newest arrival. Both dreading and hoping it was skekNa, so that she could stop working.  
  
But it wasn’t.  
  
It took another minute or so before the new figure appeared. It was a new skeksis, the one dressed in red that had stood so diligently by the Emperor’s side the previous evening. She continued to work as he approached, only looking up once she was certain he wanted to talk to her. To her surprise she noticed he was smiling, and did a double-take, he seemed to notice and smiled all the more widely for it.  
  
“You’ve been working hard, hmmm?” he remarked, and gestured at her to stop. Wynn gratefully dropped the mouldy tapestry she had been carrying, and rubbed at her sore fingers as she turned to look at him.  
  
“Yes, …my lord,” she replied hesitantly, after how the others had acted so far this strangely friendly behaviour struck her as odd.  
  
“No need to fear, I am a friend,” the strange skeksis reassured her.  
  
He seemed to realise that his words had not been quite enough, and to her further surprise he even gave her a slight bow himself, gesturing with palms bared as if to show he was harmless.  
  
“Am friend, skekSil the Chamberlain” he repeated. “It was I who convinced the Emperor to keep you here, to let you stay.”  
  
“I...err...thank you,” she crossed her arms. “That was very …nice of you.”  
  
Abruptly there was shouting nearby.  
  
Wynn looked up in alarm, while the skeksis dressed in red slowly turned to look in the direction of the arguing voices too, still smiling all the while. The shouting got closer, and she was able to pick up on some of the things they were saying.  
  
“-How dare you! When all I do is to help our Emperor!” croaked a haughty deep voice.  
  
“Pompous windbag, your words mean nothing!” she recognised the second voice as that of the big frightening General. Wynn turned so that she faced the chamber door, wary of the shouting, but neither of the skeksis passed through the room and she soon heard their arguing voices fading once more.  
  
“That would be Ritual Master and General,” the Chamberlain said knowingly. “skekZok is not happy about you, he thinks you’re too dangerous. But worry not, I’ll keep you safe. I make sure that the Emperor values you, yes?”  
  
“Yes,” Wynn replied uncertainly. “Thank you.”  
  
“You can trust me, I’m a friend,” he assured her again. “But best not to tell any of the others, yes?”  
  
She nodded.  
  
“We will talk again, sometime,” he told her as the arguing voices faded, but there was someone else approaching now, she could hear more footsteps in the hallway.  
  
The Chamberlain turned and began to leave, but took his time in doing so. skekNa spotted him as he returned and snarled irritably after him. But the Chamberlain just made an odd humming sound in return, still smiling, he left the room.  
  
skekNa then rounded on her.  
  
“What was he saying to you?” he asked suspiciously.  
  
“The shouting in the corridor,” she answered honestly. “He said the Ritual Master doesn’t trust me.”  
  
Hah!” skekNa laughed. “They’re not arguing about you. It has nothing to do with you.”  
  
Wynn didn’t answer him, too tired to be bothered with his snarling, and merely waited in silence as he inspected her work.  
  
“Pffft, unfinished,” skekNa finished assessing her work. “But I do not wish to be charged with keeping an eye on you any longer. Get back to the west tower, and stay there until morning.”


	5. Illiterate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *So a small update to this story. After having gotten stuck for some months, mainly due to this having been my final year at the university, and getting my thesis done was an all time high priority, I'm now trying my best to resume this story and hopefully start giving regular updates. This chapter, and chapter 6, are already both up on dA (since quite a while actually, I just hadn't begun to move them over here until now). Hehe, anyway, back to what I wanted to say in the first place is that I'm in the process of reading through this story again to make sure everything works as I want it to so that I can overcome my writer's block. Updates should resume in a month or so, HOPEFULLY much sooner though (I already have chapters 7 and 8 already written as drafts on my pc) :)

skekNa slammed his gloved hand down upon the wooden writing desk, startling skekOk awake.  
  
The Scroll-Keeper rocked upon his chair for a moment, eyes bleary and unfocused as he looked around frantically for the source of the disturbance. Finally his eyes settled upon the culprit.  
  
“Yes? What do you want?” he asked irritably, it was only then that he caught sight of Wynn standing behind him, and leapt out of his chair in shock. “What is _she_ doing here?!”  
  
Many of the scrolls upon his desk were sent flying, the small skeksis lurched forward quickly to grab the ink wells and vase of feather quills before they too fell.  
  
Wynn took the opportunity to look around the room. skekOk’s office, being located toward the top of a narrow spire, was round and relatively small but the ceiling was many times as high, sunlight flooding downwards through stained glass windows high above. The walls were lined with leaning bookcases full of countless scrolls of yellowed parchment.  
  
It had a quaint beauty to it.  
  
“Emperor says she needs watching,” skekNa snapped. “And I got my own duties, I don’t do watching. But you don’t do much, never leave your tower except at meals. You watch her.”  
  
“I don’t want to!” skekOk replied in a reedy voice. “How can I concentrate if she is in here lumbering about?!”  
  
skekNa gave Wynn a stern look with his good eye, then looked back at skekOk. “She won’t be a problem.”  
  
“How would you know that?! As soon as you are gone she might try to strangle me! She nearly killed me once already!”  
  
“She won’t be a problem,” skekNa repeated, already waddling back out of the room. “She’ll work, for the Emperor, she’ll work.”  
  
And he was gone, lugging himself down the spiral stairwell.  
  
Wynn looked over at the Scroll-Keeper, and skekOk stared back at her intently, frozen stiffly behind his desk. Wynn was surprised at his anxiety, and despite the circumstances she felt a twinge of regret. Barely up to her chin in height, if even that, skekOk was easily the smallest skeksis in the castle, and that was besides the fact that he was old, frail, nearly blind and very much alone up here in the tower with her. He reminded her of a small cornered animal.  
  
And it made her feel like a great lumbering behemoth.  
  
Had skekNa left her under his watch as some sort of punishment? Maybe a nasty joke? There wasn’t even a single a garthim in sight…  
  
Escaping would be too easy, but where would she go and how would she survive? For now Wynn knew the best thing to do was to lay low, wait and learn. This was an opportunity. Having been here little over 3 days now, Wynn was beginning to get a understanding now of how the skeksis hierachy worked, and she could guess that this little skeksis was not in a position of high power. If anything, she believed skekOk to be perhaps the least highly regarded of all the skeksis, and because of this, she also hoped this meant he would be the most likely to listen to her.  
  
Given that she could figure out how talk to him without provoking the irritable little creature to anger… or a heart-attack…  
  
“Well, you heard skekNa!” skekOk squawked at her in a wavering voice, straightening his back and pointing towards the fallen scrolls. “You work for me now. Pick those up!”  
  
\---  
  
Unsurprisingly, there was not much to do in the small office. After she had picked up the fallen scrolls, skekOk had shoved a small crate full of old ink-stained feather quills in her direction, along with a flask of water and rag, and then pointed her to the farthest side of the room.  
  
For the first few minutes as she worked, trying to figure out how to best remove the ink from the old quills without destroying them, she was very aware that he was still watching her. skekOk wore a total of three pairs of glasses plus a monocle below his right eye, he had to have these aligned exactly to see, and right now they were all pointed in her direction.  
  
Eventually though, as more time ticked passed, skekOk seemed to relax a little. Pulling an inkwell towards himself and picking up a big glossy black quill, he resumed scribbling on a piece of parchment upon the inclined writing slope on his desk.  
  
Perhaps an hour had passed when skekOk coughed loudly, causing Wynn to look up.  
  
“Creature,” he called to her in a nasal voice, tapping hard long nails upon his desk once to draw her attention to a small torn piece of parchment. “Pick this up.”  
  
Wynn pushed the crate of quills to one side, resisting the urge to wipe her ink stained fingers upon her clothes, she got to her feet and walked over. skekOk leant back in his elaborate wooden chair, seemingly at ease, but the rapid twitching of his eyes as she got closer gave his true feelings away.  
  
Quietly and delicately she picked up the piece of parchment and scrutinised it. Upon it was scribbled strange writing of a kind she had never seen before. Each letter was long, curling and complex, and all were completely unrecognisable.  
  
She looked up at skekOk questioningly.  
  
“Read it to me,” he told her bluntly.  
  
Wynn looked at it again, but the writing remained just as incomprehensible as before.  
  
“I can’t,” she told him. “These symbols mean nothing to me.”  
  
“Hah,” skekOk gave a twisted smile, and pointed at her. “You are illiterate!” And then he laughed.  
  
A million thoughts buzzed through her head at the accusatory assumption – but outwardly Wynn did not react. Breathing in deeply once, while skekOk continued to laugh at her, she gently put the paper back down and went back to the crate of quills.  
  
skekOk stopped laughing.  
  
Wynn continued to ignore him as she resumed her work.  
__  
‘Schschrshshhshhhhhh!’  
  
Wynn looked up just in time to see the neatly stacked scrolls upon skekOk’s desk all falling off of the desk for a second time. The Scroll-Keeper gave her a waspish look.  
  
“You will pick those up,” he squawked at her from across the room. “Great clumsy thing, knocking all the scrolls off my desk!”  
  
Wynn got back to her feet, the little skeksis’ attempts to be assertive was trying her patience, but she refused to let it get a rise out of her. She wanted to be able to talk to this skeksis, and angering him would not help her. She crouched down and began to pick up the scrolls in her arms.  
  
In the distance, there was the sound of a bell, the deep sound resonating down the spire.  
  
“I will be dining now,” skekOk announced, getting to his feet while she was still gathering up the scrolls. “You’ll stay here, the Emperor wouldn’t want you anywhere near the banquet hall.”  
  
“Yes, your lordship,” she replied curtly. skekOk gave her another stern look, then hurried off with his beak raised in the air.  
  
She sighed as soon as he was gone, forgetting the scrolls and slumping back against the side of the wooden desk, and looked up towards the ceiling.  
__  
Was this really worth it?  
  
For a moment she had a crazy idea of grabbing skekOk when he returned and taking him hostage, forcing him to direct her out of the castle and command away any garthim blocking the way, and then when she was free she could let him go, no harm done…  
  
Except she could not imagine herself doing such a thing.  
  
So many things could go wrong, but most importantly of all she didn’t think she had it in her to be able to manhandle a living creature in such a way. Perhaps if the situation had been direr, like in the panic when she had first arrived, but not now when the threat was less tangible.  
  
Wynn looked around the tall narrow office, observing at leisure now that she was alone. On one of the higher shelves, she could see a doll of sorts, sun-bleached with age and vaguely resembling a skeksis with small bells around its neck – a jester’s hand-puppet, perhaps? It looked oddly cute.  
  
There was no way of reaching it, the only ladder that would have once provided access to the higher shelves was missing most of its rungs and looked dilapitated. Just how long had this castle been neglected for? If logic didn't tell her better, Wynn would have guessed centuries.  
  
Curiously, she opened one of the scrolls that skekOk had knocked off his desk, and felt annoyed as she was confronted again with the same strange writing as before. _‘Stupid coded-’_  
  
Then she realised something.  
__  
Oh, now that was an idea!  
  
She stood up and placed the scrolls back where they belonged. Walking around to the other side of the desk, she picked up the same piece of parchment that skekOk had given her previously. Flipping it over, she gingerly took hold of the black quill that had been left upon the desk, and dipped it into an inkwell.  
  
The tip of the quill bent and splattered ink as soon as she tested it's weight against the paper, but she managed to write a small semi-readable sentence all in the roman alphabet on the back of the piece of parchment.  
  
Deliberately, she then left the paper on the desk, putting the quill back, she returned to the side of the office where she had been sitting previously, and ignoring the crate of dirty quills, she waited patiently.  
  
\---  
  
Surprisingly, she didn’t have to wait long. Just a few minutes later, skekOk returned, followed closely by skekNa and a small herd of podlings carrying several plates of food.  
  
“She’s still here,” skekNa jostled the Scroll-Keeper with a small shove. “Be thankful the Emperor is so forgiving. Leave her unsupervised again and he will not be pleased!”  
  
“My apologies,” skekOk replied in a quiet voice.  
  
skekNa grunted, and looked at the plates of food the podlings had placed upon the Scroll-Keeper’s desk. Hooking himself up a morsel, he lumbered off again. The podlings stayed behind, staring blankly across the room now that their jobs were done.  
  
skekOk huffed unhappily once skekNa was gone and sat back down behind his desk. Pulling the plates towards himself, he began to eat.  
  
“Oversight by the others,” he told her grouchily when he noticed she was staring. “Not my fault. You shouldn’t be here. Should be in prison cell. I shouldn’t need to watch you.”  
  
She nodded wordlessly, trying to discretely look towards where she had placed the piece of parchment. It was scrunched under a goblet. skekOk still hadn’t noticed it.  
  
“The Emperor is convinced you’re special, creature,” he said, picking at his food with his bare hands. “Thinks you will be of great use to him.”  
  
Wynn, who had been unable to stop herself from staring at his poor table manners, quickly looked away. skekOk noticed, and huffed loudly in irritation.  
  
“Where did you come from?” skekOk changed the topic, self-consciously picking up a strange set of cutlery that he slotted carefully onto each of his fingers. “I have documented and recorded all there is to know of every corner of Thra, but your kind is like nothing I have ever seen here. I knew you were no gelfling from the moment I saw you.”  
  
Wynn remembered differently.  
  
“It was how I told Emperor when I first arrived at the castle,” she told him. “These lands are new to me, I have no idea how I got here. I awoke in the forest, that is all I know.”  
  
“But you must have memories from before then? Can’t have gotten there from nowhere. What was the last thing you remember?”  
  
“I-,” Wynn paused, trying to remember. She had done this already many times before, ever since she had arrived she had tried to remember. But it got her nowhere. “I was happy. There were many other people, I think I knew them…”  
  
“There are more of your kind?”  
  
“Well, I didn’t just magically spring out of the ground.”  
  
“Spontaneous generation might be something our Scientist has dismissed, but not all of us have,” skekOk loudly sipped at his stew. “Then what?”  
  
“I don’t remember… the sun was in my eyes, it was too bright to look, but the sun was black…?”  
  
But the inexplicable colour of the sun was not the thing that skekOk was interested in.  
  
“The sun was in your eyes?” he quizzed her. “What do you mean by that, creature? Do refer to the sunlight of all three suns or just one?”  
  
“There was just one sun,” Wynn blinked at him. “As far as I can remember, there always was.”  
  
skekOk seemed surprised by this but said nothing more, casting his eyes back to his desk as he chewed on his food. At last he noticed the piece of parchment, and snatched it up.  
  
“What is this?” he questioned after peering at the paper intently for a few moments. “How dare you use my quill?! And just what are these scribbles you have made?”  
  
“The writing of my people,” she told him flatly. “Can you read it?”  
  
“Don’t get cheeky with me, I’ll tell skekNa!” he told her waspishly, but he seemed more confounded by the writing than truly angry. “What does it say?”  
  
“If you wanted, I could teach you to read this type of writing,” she suggested.  
  
“And why would I want that?”  
  
“Because no one but you in this castle could read it, as a historian it would only be right that you knew. You could decipher and scribe writing no one else could. Only you would know its meaning.”  
  
“Are you suggesting that I keep secrets from my brethren?!” he asked her accusingly.  
  
“Of course not, I thought it would merely be of interest.”  
  
“Hmm,” he looked at her suspiciously. “But you must want something in return, don’t you?”  
  
“Only that you do the same for me.”  
  
“You want me to teach you how to read skexish?”  
  
“Only in return.”  
  
“Outrageous! Preposterous!” skekOk shook his head vigorously and went back to his food.  
  
And Wynn went back to her work without another word, but this was all part of the plan. She waited. A few minutes passed, and there was a clink as skekOk finished his meal and placed his cutlery down upon his plate.  
  
“And no one else would be able to read this writing?” he asked tentatively, as if afraid someone might overhear him. And this was exactly what she had been hoping for.  
  
“No one but those who know how to write it,” Wynn replied.  
  
There was silence for a few moments, Wynn pretended to be indifferent, carrying on with her task.  
  
“Teach me.”  
  
Perfect.  
  
“Teach you what?” she questioned innocently.  
  
“I order you to teach me your people's alphabet,” he demanded. “I want it for the historical value!”  
  
Wynn barely managed to stop herself from smiling.  
  
“But Lord Scroll-Keeper, if I were to do that I would have to tell the others, after all I have to answer to everyone.”  
  
“Well I order you not to!”  
  
“But if someone were to ask, say the Chamberlain or even the Emperor himself, I would have to say something.”  
  
“Hah, if you do I'll have you thrown in the dungeon!”  
  
“And then I wouldn't be able to teach you the coded language of my people.”  
  
skekOk looked shocked.  
  
“You are certainly no gelfling,” he stared at her.  
  
Wynn knew she could not trade anything fairly with any skeksis, even if she had had anything material to trade, but playing them off against each other – like a light form of blackmail, since technically skekOk didn't have to take the deal if he didn't want to – could theoretically work. One thing any single skeksis (with the possible exception of the Emperor) could not order her to do was to not talk to the other skeksis.  
  
“I’ll see what I can do,” he told her gruffly. “But this is to remain a secret, if any of the others ask, you were just working all day.”  
  
“I would never tell a soul,” she at last allowed herself to show some genuine human emotion, laying one hand over her heart. skekOk snorted and pushed his plates to the side, barking some order in the odd language of the podlings to get them to pick the plates up.  
  
“Podlings are terrible at writing,” he told her. “Stupid creatures… Keep no written record for their kind, not that it is a history worth keeping.”  
  
Wynn glanced at the podlings. If they could understand him they didn’t appear to be offended.  
  
“Well, I’m sure if anyone would be capable of teaching them, it would be you. You must be a very skilled linguist with your extensive knowledge of all of Thra and its history,” she tried flattery.  
  
“You’re a quick learner, I can tell,” he told her, raising his head higher and straightening his back. “Not as much as a skeksis, but I can work with that.”  
  
“I would be honoured to have such a wise and noble teacher as yourself,” she replied.  
  
skekOk tutted irritably, but Wynn could tell he loved the compliments. He did not hold himself as tensely as before, all his previous anxiety had drained away.  
  
“Perhaps I could even train you up to be my scribe,” he told her pompously. “It’s been a long time since I have had anyone to assist me with my writing. In the days of old, I would always have at least 10 scribes at my beck and call!”  
  
“Where are they now?” Wynn could not resist asking.  
  
“Hmm, dead, of course,” he gave her a critical look. “You know nothing of gelfling, do you?”  
  
“I don’t even know what a gelfling looks like.”  
  
“You are like a blank piece of parchment,” skekOk nodded gravely as if this was a very tragic thing. “But you are in luck, I am a historian! And I have much to tell you…”


	6. Half-Told Tales

_“There are only so few skeksis left?”  
  
“There were many more of us once,” skekOk gestured widely with both hands. “But the gelfling menace, they had wished to wipe us out! We skeksis were the guardians of this world, we brought to these savages knowledge, wisdom, skills in craftsmanship, culture, medicine and science, of the like they could have never known without us! And how did they repay us? With lies, deceit and then attempted genocide!”  
  
“I had wondered why such an immense castle was so empty,” she had admitted quietly. “The plight of the skeksis is a tragic one.”  
  
skekOk nodded so enthusiastically that the furthest spectacles upon his beak became dislodged.  
  
“It is our curse!” he said, readjusting his spectacles. “That we should be such generous humble beings, from a once immense and prosperous kingdom, now only to be the last of our kind. The gelfling are all dead and gone – and good riddance! – but where does that leave the skeksis? We are not as youthful as we once were, and age gnaws more greedily at our bodies with every passing day. ”  
  
“That is dreadful.”  
  
“If only you could have seen how this castle looked in the days of old! The music so beautiful and powerful that you could feel it in your very  soul! The food so succulent and bountiful it could have fed the entire world! The banners, displays, dancing, costumes, singing, all so elaborate and enchanting you would never want it to end!” skekOk sank backwards into his chair and looked back at her intently. “Those were the good days, when the castle was still full of life and everyone was content, before the gelflings ruined it all!”  
  
But Wynn knew nothing of gelflings, let alone of their motivations or why they would have done what they did.  
  
“Why did the gelfling turn on the skeksis?” she asked tentatively.  
  
“They were greedy! Wanted the castle for themselves! They no longer appreciated our kind – when we skeksis had never done anything but help them and all the people of Thra to thrive! The Emperor regularly hosted the royal vapran family itself within these very walls, he even wedded into their unworthy family to keep them happy! But it was never enough. Gelfling chose to destroy skeksis because they desired supremacy!”  
_  
\---  
  
Each time the history of the skeksis had been repeated to her, the tale would differ slightly from the last – she wouldn’t have noticed this if skekOk hadn’t felt the need to recount this particular tale repetitively over the past few days. In fact, history appeared to be one of skekOk’s only interests, but the repetitiveness didn’t bother her, he was her only source of information in this strange new world, and given skekOk’s tendency to fall asleep in his chair, and her recent revelation that he was actually a very old creature, perhaps the lack of consistency wasn’t necessarily intentional.  
  
It had been more than a week since she had arrived now, it somehow felt much longer. The days seemed to drag, and skeksis lived slowly, taking their time to move around the castle, and rarely wandering far from two of the uppermost floors. It was only throughout skekOk’s tales that she had come to realise just how old they were. What she had initially taken for simply being down to the appearance of their species she now realised was actually the result of advanced age. There were no youthful skeksis amongst them, no children to speak of. And maybe there couldn’t have been. Besides their age, out of the 10 skeksis living in the castle not a single one of them was seemingly female – the two who she had initially thought might be female, the effeminate preening Ornamentalist and the long-haired Treasurer, she had since overheard both being referred to as he. The skeksis really did seem to be a doomed species, and it was sad… but for all skekOk’s sorrowful tales of loss and regret, they certainly didn’t treat her any more kindly.  
  
It had been clear to her for some days now that they didn’t really know what to do with her. The podlings were like clockwork, set numbers were always assigned to set tasks each day, they would wander away decisively without a word to switch between tasks, they knew what they were supposed to do.  
  
Wynn didn’t have that kind of timetable, skekNa seemed to assign her tasks at random, and then leave her. She had wondered as to why. It was clear she didn’t fit in with the podlings, but why keep her around at all? Was it really charity as both skekOk and the Emperor had claimed? They didn’t seem charitable. It felt more like they were waiting for something, but she wasn’t sure what, and it made her feel uneasy and confused. But maybe that was all in her head and there was no plan, maybe they really just didn’t know what to do with her.  
  
Like today for example, she found herself in part of the castle she had never been before, the high dome-shaped room, with sunlight streaming through the yellowed glass of its numerous windows was reminiscent of the interior of a giant coral. It appeared to be a conservatory of some kind.  
  
Or perhaps a chapel?  
  
Or maybe both?  
  
Like much of the rest of the castle, it was in a state of disrepair. A miscellaneous collection of furniture, broken sculptures and junk had been crowded into one end of the room, amongst these the only things she could really recognise was a pair of musical horns, each moulded to resemble something between a skeksis and a segmented grub, and each nearly as tall as she was.  
  
There was definitely some sanctimonious elements to this room, and with the presence of skekZok – who was currently drifting around nearby like a gold and red blimp – and skekEkt directing a choir of podlings nearby, she was beginning to assume that this large chamber was the equivalent of a skeksis church, or had been long ago.  
  
The podling choir, as that was the only thing she could call it, sounded unlike anything she had ever heard before. She had truly believed that the podlings were mute up until that morning, when she had heard them begin their strange recital, all low groaning vocals without words.  
  
There was something very unnerving about podlings, and she still didn’t know why. skekOk had told her they were simply stupid, but this was not an adequate explanation to their permanently lifeless-like state.  
  
After perhaps an hour or rearranging crumbling furniture and ornaments, and then shoving it all back into the same pile again when they inevitably all fell to pieces, skekZok finally acknowledged her presence.  
  
“Is any of it salvageable?” he asked sternly.  
  
“Erm, I believe the horns are okay, master skekZok,” she didn’t mention that she hadn’t actually tried to move them out of fear how heavy they would be if they fell. Wynn watched him out of the corner of her eye, as he assessed the quality of the mound of junk for himself.  
  
She looked at the mound of doubtfully, she didn’t know how many years it had been there but the state of decay told her it had been a very, very, very long time. This was no surprise, almost everything in the castle appeared to be ancient, but something had struck her as strange as she had sorted through it that day – amongst it all there were many wooden chairs, but many were far too small for any skeksis to have ever used.  
  
Wynn didn’t get to dwell on this long, as at that moment skekZok began barking orders in podling. The podling choir, having broken up by now, gathered around quickly, moving slowly but decisively as they began to gather up the broken furniture and rubble, and take it away.  
  
Soon the last of the podlings was trailing out of the room, only one straggler remained, trying and failing to pick up a decorative but rotten chair four times its size.  
  
The Ritual Master hissed impatiently and turned to glare at her.  
  
“Dispose of that,” he snapped, shaking one hand in the direction of the spectacle – it wasn’t clear to her whether he meant the podling or the chair.  
  
Wordlessly she obeyed, hoisting up the chair and staggering briefly under its weight, it wasn’t just made of wood, there were heavy metallic components and even encrusted gems built into the frame. The podling now picked up something that was more size appropriate – some crystal tresses of a shattered chandelier.  
  
She followed after the minute creature as it began to trundle away.  
  
The chair was heavy, and pointy, a few times she paused to readjust her grip to relieve some of the discomfort of carrying it through the long winding halls. Then when one of the chair legs suddenly broke off in her hand, she had to drop it altogether to find a more secure way of carrying it. But by the time she was up again, the podling had already walked quite a distance ahead.  
  
“Hey, wait!”  
  
It didn’t, and instead vanished into one the tiny podling-sized tunnel shortcuts in the wall.  
  
An attempt to stuff the chair through the tunnel turned out to be futile, as it only broke apart even more and threatened to become permanently lodged. Just where was she supposed to take this damn thing? Abandoning it on one of the lower forgotten floors seemed like a potential idea, but Wynn decided against this, and reluctantly went in search of skekNa.  
  
This part of the castle was empty, and after wandering around in circles for a while, she eventually found skekNa’s isolated chambers. She hesitated for a while at the door, placing the chair down, then knocked. When no one answered, she pushed the door ajar and looked in.  
  
“Master skekNa?”  
  
The room was empty, the Slave Master was obviously elsewhere. Wynn looked around nonetheless, she hadn’t seen any skeksis sleeping chambers before and was curious. To her surprise, it was a rather sparse room, there was a scruffy looking bed in one corner and some shelves stuffed with miscellaneous dusty items, a simple low table and as well as an odd pile of blankets in one corner, but not much else.  
  
Then there was a rapid patter of footsteps and something small ran out from beneath the low table and began to rush towards her.  
  
Quickly she stepped back, thinking that skekNa might have left a guard animal of some sort.  
  
Her sudden movements caused the creature to halt in its tracks and stare up at her warily with its big blue eyes. It wasn’t an animal.  
  
In fact she wasn’t sure what it was. Smaller than a podling, and covered in grey fluff, the small creature wore equally small green robes and tiny velveteen shoes.  
  
Wynn hesitated. Looking back out into the hallway and then back in again she looked down at the tiny fuzzy being.  
  
 _Was this… was this what she thought it was?_  
  
“Hi there,” she said softly to the little… _was this really a young skeksis?!_  
  
The infant stared back at her blankly. Perhaps it didn’t understand her. With how small it was it had to be very young, she was certain of that, but how young? Why was it abandoned back here on its own? Where were its parents? Who were its parents? There was just too many questions in her head at once, and she didn’t know the answer to any of them, but one fact stood out to her more than the rest – this was skekNa’s room, and she wasn’t supposed to be in here. If he returned then she would be in trouble.  
  
“I’ll just be going now,” she said quietly and began to back out of the door. The little skeksis finally overcame its fear and began to follow after her. She froze at the sight. It didn’t just follow after her, it _waddled_! Overcoming the sudden nearly overwhelming urge to pick up the little thing, Wynn slowly closed the door again so that the little skeksis was once again sealed away in the room.  
  
And then, not knowing what else to do, she left.  
  
\---  
  
By the time evening had rolled around, Wynn found herself without an assigned job and skekNa had still seemingly forgotten about her. Without anything to do, Wynn considered going back to the west tower to rest, but she wouldn’t give up this easily. All time was precious and she was going to use it valuably, so she went in search of skekOk.  
  
Unfortunately, the Scroll-Keeper was not in his office, and knowing that she wouldn’t be welcome on the inhabited floors, she could not freely go in search of him.  
  
Deciding to try to find some way to ingratiate herself, she sought out skekAyuk in the kitchens to offer her assistance to make up for the fright she had given him a few days before. To her surprise, he was not the only skeksis in the kitchens. skekEkt was also there, though he hung back at the other end of the kitchen, seemingly thinking he was invisible behind the steam.  
  
Her offer of help was turned down immediately. skekAyuk had taken one look at her and told her she would make the food bad, before ordering her away. At least his initial fear of her seemed to have faded away, that was a good thing, right? Feeling dejected and fed-up, Wynn decided to call it a night despite the suns still being in the sky, she headed back for the west tower again, to at least be out of the way of the skeksis that evening while she thought up her next plan of action.  
  
On her way back up the narrow stairwell away from the kitchens, she found the doorway to the hall blocked by someone headed the opposite direction. Dressed in dusty red and black, the Chamberlain seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.   
  
“Sorry, my lord,” she said to him, realising that squeezing past him through the door was kind of out of the question, she began to turn to head back down the stairs again. “Excuse me.”  
  
But to her surprise, the Chamberlain took a step back into the hallway beyond.  
  
“No need to worry, young creature,” he crooned at her, gesturing for her to pass through first, head slightly bowed as he looked up at her through hooded eyes. “No harm was meant, yes? All is good, hmm?”  
  
“Yeah, no harm meant,” she agreed, bowing her head to him. “Have a good evening, my lord.”  
  
“Wait,” the Chamberlain held out an arm as she tried to pass him. “I have something I must discuss with you. But not now. Seek me out tomorrow morning, when the others are not around. I think what I have to share may be of interest to you, hmmm?”  
  
“Of course, my lord,” she answered. “We shall talk tomorrow.”  
  
“Yes, good,” he agreed. “Find me, will you? Hmmm?”  
  
And he left, walking slowly down the stairs towards the kitchens. Wynn resumed her journey back to the west tower, brain whirring once more at the unexpected quest. What could the Chamberlain want to speak to her about? And why was he meeting up with skekEkt and skekAyuk in the kitchens of all places? She hadn’t taken more than a few steps when skekOk suddenly emerged out the shadows cackling to himself.  
  
She leapt out of surprise, but skekOk did not appear to notice, wordlessly shoving an armful of scrolls into her arms, and gestured for her to follow him.  
  
“The Chamberlain has been places he shouldn’t,” he said smugly.  
  
“You saw something, did you, lord Scroll-keeper?” she asked.  
  
skekOk nodded, giggling to himself but saying nothing more, leaving Wynn in the dark as to what secrets he knew.  
  
“I heard him talking to you,” he said knowingly as they walked – as she suspected he had. “I heard what he said.”  
  
“He seems nice,” she told him.  
  
skekOk promptly seemed to choke, and turned to look at her as if she had grown a second head.  
  
“Nice? Oh yes, he’s very nice, isn’t he?” the Scroll-keeper agreed sarcastically, then muttered something to himself which she couldn’t quite hear.  
  
“What else is down that stairwell, other than the kitchen?” she asked. “I saw the lord Ornamentalist was also down there.”  
  
“Nothing of interest,” skekOk said to her, seemingly glaring up at her, Wynn knew that he still found her height somewhat daunting and it almost seemed that he thought if he stared accusingly enough at her that she would shrink. “The Chamberlain thinks he’s clever by hiding down there when talking to those two. As if he could be more obvious that he’s talking to them in secret when all three vanish at the same time.”  
  
“Does the Emperor mind?”  
  
“Hmm,” skekOk seemed to weigh up answering this question. “He doesn’t know about it. But everyone else does. Recently the talks have mainly consisted of insulting the Garthim Master. You see, the Chamberlain thinks skekUng vies for the throne if our Emperor were to pass on.”  
  
“The Chamberlain wants the throne for himself?”  
  
“He is next in line officially, obviously,” skekOk told her matter-of-factly. “The Emperor has no natural heirs.”  
  
“Did he once?” she asked, wondering if some terrible tragedy had befallen them during the gelfling revolution. And inevitably she thought of the little skeksis locked away in that room all alone.  
  
skekOk surprised her by giving her a wary look. “Never speak of such things to his highness, he would kill you for it.”  
  
They both stopped walking as the sound of hurried footsteps and noisy dragging of cloth upon stone behind them became audible. Wynn looked back nervously, worried that skekNa had at last recalled her existence and come looking for her in a furious hurry.  
  
But it wasn’t skekNa. Instead to her surprise a narrow bony skeksis dressed in white, violet and pink came hurrying around the corner, it was the same skeksis she had just seen hiding at the back of the kitchen, the Ornamentalist, skekEkt.  
  
He slowed down on seeing that she had stopped. skekEkt began to open his beak and raise one hand as he approached but then as soon as his eyes fell upon skekOk, he seemed to deflate and brought both hands back down to his sides.  
  
“Sorry for startling you like this. I just wanted to know how you’re settling in,” he addressed her directly. “I’m the Ornamentalist, we’ve only spoken briefly before, which I regret. It’s been so long since we have had a guest, and unlike many of the others I haven’t forgotten my manners.”  
  
“I- Thank you, lord Ornamentalist,” she bowed her head, glancing at skekOk who was grumbling under his breath. “I’m settling in well.”  
  
“Hmm?” skekEkt looked at her curiously, folding both gloved hands delicately across his stomach. “And what do you think of the castle?”  
  
The cordial question took her by surprise.  
  
“I, erm, think it’s quite nice,” she said hastily, then gestured somewhat lamely up at the long hall’s carved ceiling. “It’s very beautiful, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”  
  
“It is of skeksis making, of course there is nothing finer,” skekOk said loudly.  
  
“Oh it is, isn’t it?” skekEkt sounded delighted, completely ignoring skekOk. “The architecture has a number of influences, only the most aesthetically pleasing themes were chosen, of course, over the millennia that we have had to change this castle we have made many improvements.”  
  
Millennia? And change? It sounded to her like the castle had long ago once belonged to someone else besides the skeksis. Or perhaps that was when the castle was built? Or maybe when a certain group of skeksis moved into power? She couldn’t be certain of anything yet, and decided she would have to ask skekOk about it later… given that he would still be willing to talk to her. She didn’t know why skekEkt was ignoring him, and she didn’t like that she was having to play the middle-ground between them as she suspected skekOk was likely to blame this all on her afterwards.  
  
“I was the lead art director for most of it,” skekEkt continued proudly. “I have an eye for design, and beauty.”  
  
Wynn looked at the glistening pearls hanging either side of his neck, many smaller pearls were imbedded in his ruff and red ruby rings glinted upon his gloved fingers, to her he somewhat resembled a brightly coloured chandelier. And combined with his tuft of dyed red hair and multi-coloured moth-eaten robes, it was a rather excessive look.  
  
“I can see,” she told him nonetheless, then added purely to flatter him. “Your robes are some of the finest I have ever seen.”  
  
skekEkt immediately made a very loud noise that was a mix somewhere between a purr and a shriek, that for moment had Wynn wondering whether she should run for her life. But he wasn’t offended, quite the opposite it seemed.  
  
“I know, I designed them myself,” he told her gleefully, tracing the edge of one of his sleeves with one long finger, and Wynn got the distinct impression that he was looking over her own clothes, probably judging the dreadful state her pyjamas were now in – the same clothes she had been stuck in since she had first arrived nearly a week before. “You should come to my workspace,” he told her. “I could fix something up more fitting for you too, you poor thing.”  
  
Wynn was stunned by the hugely generous offer, torn between disbelief as to whether it was genuine and delirious joy at the possibility that it was.  
  
skekOk tutted loudly.  
  
She never got a chance to answer the surprisingly charitable offer because at that moment skekNa finally really did turn up. skekEkt made a worried chirring sound and left without a further word.  
  
“What was this doing outside my chambers?!” the Slave Master demanded, holding up a fragment of the broken chair she had left.   
  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know where to put them, master skekNa,” she said hastily – after the shock of seeing the little skeksis she had forgotten all about the chair. “I went to look for you, but I didn’t know where you were.”  
  
“Did you go into my chambers?!” skekNa snapped accusatorily.   
  
“No,” she lied. “I was only looking for you, master skekZok said-”  
  
“skekZok?” skekNa snapped suspiciously, then shook himself and turned away with a snarl. “Follow me, now!”  
  
Deciding that things were getting out of hand, Wynn tried to politely pass the scrolls back to skekOk. He wouldn’t immediately take them though, and just glared at her.  
  
“I’m sorry, I must go now, I can’t carry these for you,” she apologised.  
  
“I am a lord!” he snapped unexpectedly. “Don’t talk to me like we’re equals!” Then he huffily snatched the scrolls from her and hastily shuffled away.  
  
Like she had predicted, he no doubt blamed her for skekEkt ignoring him, but she saw now that skekNa also didn’t seem to even notice him there… It seemed he was not respected by any of his fellows, not even enough to be acknowledged.   
  
Wynn hurried after skekNa.  
  
She was instructed to pick up the broken chair and its pieces on the way, and then he led them up another winding set of stairs and out onto an open balcony. Wynn kept expecting him to say something about the little skeksis she had seen locked away, but he didn’t say anything at all.  
  
The balcony had no barriers of any kind at its edges, it seemed to jut out into the sky itself. Moving as close as she dared to the edge she looked down, and saw that it overhung the chasm that surrounded the castle. The great height alone was enough to make her legs wobbly, and she quickly moved away from the edge as the wind currents howled up the sides of the castle.  
  
“Throw it in,” skekNa barked at her. “This is where all the rubbish of the castle goes, and that includes you if you fail in your duties.” And he waddled off, leaving her alone on the balcony.  
  
Wynn was captivated by the view from the balcony. From up here, for the first time ever, she could see the surrounding lands clearly. The barren cracked landscape that surrounded the castle stretched out before her, but in the distance she could see greenery, the forest she had first arrived in, and also on the horizon she saw glistening silver surf, the sea! This was the world beyond the castle, and it did not look so dead.  
  
And when she was ready, she told herself, she would see it all, and find a way home.


	7. Schemy Skeksis

Something had happened the previous evening after she had left.

 

But she didn’t know what it had been.

 

Having been left without instructions, and seemingly forgotten by skekNa once again, Wynn had gone off in search of something to do. She was starting to know the layout of the castle well, the convoluted tunnels and stairwells now seemed more familiar and distinct to her, she found it easy to navigate her way back up to the upper floors, where the majority of the skeksis lived.

 

Only, things somehow seemed even emptier than usual up here. And though she could hear several voices from the direction of the throne room they seemed hushed and almost nervous. And loudly above them all, she would occasionally hear the harsh barking voice of the Emperor.

 

Deciding to steer clear of whatever was going on there, she began to wander.

 

It turned out not everyone was in the throne room.

 

Nearly hidden by the shadows of a deserted hallway, she could just about see the outline of the bony carapace of skekTek. skekNa, who was with him, was less well hidden, and stood out in the open.

 

“…it’s getting worse,” skekTek had been hissing quietly to skekNa. “His lungs are slowly failing.”

 

Their conversation ended the moment she was noticed. skekNa’s face scrunched up at the sight of her, but before he could say anything, skekTek gestured at him to leave. There was a moment of hesitation, but then the Slaver shuffled away without even a backward glance.

 

“You haven’t been causing trouble,” skekTek addressed her like it was a surprise. “Barely seen a glimpse of you. If not for skekNa, I would have thought you had fled, creature.”

 

“Where would I go, master skekTek?” Wynn answered honestly.

 

skekTek scrutinised her with narrowed eyes.

 

She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the old limping castle scientist, she had seen very little of him since her arrival here, the only one she had seen less of was the head-scarf wearing Treasurer, whom she had only caught glimpses of and seemed completely disinterested in her existence. But she knew he wasn’t to be trusted. He had tried to drug her when she had first been captured and this was not something she was going to forget.

 

The Scientist made low hissing sound, looking one way, and then the other down the corridor, tapping his cane against the floor. Then he looked at her.

 

“The castle is not as well fortified as it once was,” he said cryptically.

 

Wynn did not get a chance to question what he had meant though for at that moment she became aware of the shuffling of another skeksis approaching. The distinct heavy footfalls, and the clanking of armour made her aware it was the General – a skeksis she always tried to avoid.

 

Excusing herself, she pretended to have work to do and seeing that skekNa had vanished, she decided to leave. She hurried away without making eye-contact.

 

Wynn didn’t go far, just far enough to be out of earshot, then glanced back.

 

They were both watching her.

 

Quickly she looked away again and hurried away from that abandoned hallway.

 

_Pfffft, now what?_ She asked herself as soon as she was far away as to see or be seen by the Scientist or General. _Go in search of skekNa?_ For someone who was supposed to be making sure she pulled her weight around the castle, skekNa really didn’t seem that interested. Perhaps he had ran out of things for her to do? Or perhaps he just couldn’t be bothered.

 

No matter, she had other things she needed to do. The previous evening, the Chamberlain had suggested that she seek him out this morning. She suspected he was currently in the throne room with most of the other skeksis.

 

With the Emperor’s current temper, being seen around the throne room would mean trouble, a lot of trouble, more than she was willing to risk. It would have to wait.

 

She sought out the thorn infested courtyard she had seen on her first day there. She wasn’t really meant to be here, but without skekNa in sight, she was feeling a braver. The light was dazzlingly bright out here compared to the gloom of the castle, and she had to shield her eyes. She sat back against a cracked wall there, and took a brief moment to soak up the sun’s warm light. Oh wait, _suns’_ , there were three of them here after all.

 

Wynn wasn’t alone for long.

 

The Chamberlain eventually came looking for her, though how he had known she was there, she had no idea. Then she remembered the spy creatures that skekNa owned, and wondered if skekSil might also had such creatures of his own. She didn’t like the idea, not specifically the Chamberlain but any of the skeksis, having these spy creatures. She didn’t understand how it even worked. Nothing made sense here.

 

“Hmmm,” he stood beneath the archway leading back to the hall, squinting in the sunlight he stepped back into the hall behind him.

 

She got to her feet and followed after him.

 

“So good to find you, hmmm?” he seemed to almost question her. “Was wondering where you were.”

 

“I cannot go into the throne room, master skekSil” she answered. “I had to wait.”

 

Wynn really wanted to ask him about why the Emperor had sounded so agitated this morning, and if it was related to what she had overheard skekTek saying, but she felt it still wasn’t her place to.

 

From amongst his trailing faded robes, skekSil pulled forth a scroll of parchment, bound with thread, and pressed it into her hands.

 

“This is for the General,” he said innocently, but then added. “You must not pass it to him directly, or let him know that anyone has seen it. It contains private information that he would be very unhappy about if he thought you had been looking at it.”

_Oh no…_

 

“But how do I give it to him then?” she questioned, beginning to regret to have agreed to this. There was definitely something suspicious going on here?

 

“Better leave it some place where he thinks it has been dropped accidentally. Must look accidental. That is very important.”

 

“Alright, I understand,” she agreed uneasily.

 

He nodded and began to leave, but Wynn suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be getting something out of this too.

 

“What do I get out of doing this?” she blurted out, straight to the point.

 

The Chamberlain paused, and looked back at her as if surprised she would ask this. Then produced from beneath his waistcoat a small flat box the width of his hand.

 

“Treats,” he said sweetly, revealing the box was filled with sweetened crystalline looking objects. “Do well, and you may get more.”

 

_Treats?!_

 

…

 

Wynn was not a fool, she headed straight for skekOk’s tower.

 

“This is not for the General,” he cackled as he read the scroll. “This is addressed personally to the Emperor from the Ritual Master!”

 

“What does it say?” she asked.

 

“Nosy little thing, aren’t you?” he said snippily to her, but immediately unravelled the scroll further and continued reading. “It’s a report of sorts. skekZok is the Emperor’s current advisor, it is his duty to give advice and offer suggestions to the Emperor regarding the wellbeing of the kingdom.”

 

“And why would the Chamberlain-?”

 

“I’m getting to that! Now, you must have noticed the tension between the General and Ritual Master, yes? Only a fool would miss it.”

 

Wynn hadn’t really. Once she had heard them arguing on her second day there, but apart from that she had never seen them interacting. She nodded anyway.

 

“The Ritual Master doesn’t like the General,” skekOk told her. “Just before you appeared, he made a prophecy that the Emperor would be usurped by the largest of the remaining skeksis. Can you guess why he might have done that?”

 

Wynn nodded. “But why?”

 

“Why?! Isn’t it obvious? They both think they can replace the Emperor one day,” skekOk shook his head anxiously and looked around quickly, then gestured for her to lean closer as he spoke in a quieter voice. “The Chamberlain is the third contender, I think this little plan of his is to get those two to fight amongst themselves.”

 

“What do you think I should do? I don’t want to get into any trouble!”

 

“It’s got nothing to do with me,” skekOk said childishly. “Best just do as the Chamberlain asked. You’ve taken the parchment now, if you do anything else you will look even more suspicious now.”

 

…

 

She didn’t even know where to go, she had no idea where the General would be.

 

Could she perhaps just dump the scroll outside of his bedroom chambers? Well maybe, if it wasn’t very likely that any skeksis that came strolling along wouldn’t resist picking up the scroll and taking it for themselves, and that was given that she even figure out where said chambers were…

 

In the end, she had to wait around for him in the corridors while avoiding the others. It was pure luck that she found him alone when she did.

 

She had heard the General approaching long before she saw him, thinking quickly she dropped the letter to one side of the hallway so as to look accidental, then quietly and quickly made her exit. A benefit of not having any shoes with her was that she was capable of navigating the hallways exceptionally quietly. And with long legs, at least compared to the tiny podlings, and without the hefty robes of the skeksis, she could quickly climb and scale ledges, and in this case she was able to take a short-cut over the side of a spiral stair case, though she waited there in silence rather than risk being caught running away. She had to make sure the letter fell into the right hands.

 

The General, after a parade of huffing and shuffling eventually made his way down the corridor. She was relying on the nosiness of skeksis for the General to pick the letter up.

 

And sure enough he did.

 

For a few moments he stood there, reading. Snarling, he cursed, the scroll scrunching up between his hands.

 

…

 

For now she had found a method at last to wash. It was not ideal, in fact it was very cold and uncomfortable, but she wasn’t going to complain at this time. On the lowermost floors of the castle was where many of the non-essential goods were stored, this included water and soap that was to be used for washing floors, plates and as it turned out, also podlings. It was cold water, drawn up from river that flowed deep beneath the castle, and stored in great open vats. There wasn’t much option but to tip water over her head and shoulders using a podling bucket that was about the size of a large tea mug. It was the definition of awkward, but it was in her favour the castle was so empty in this situation. There was no risk of disturbance and she was able to take her time splashing herself with cold water.

 

Then feeling fresher than she had since she had arrived, she stood shivering until most of the water had dripped off her clothes then hurried over to what appeared to be cloth drying racks. Inspecting this she found it was located directly in front of a solid stone wall that was warm though she could see no obvious source for this warmth. She sat back against this until she was dry, and then some more.

 

skekNa seemed to have forgotten about her again, COMPLETELY, today it seemed. He hadn’t even spoken to her, and she thought of skekTek’s cryptic words to her that morning. Had he been just stating a fact or was he suggesting that she sought a way out of the castle? Was he trying to get her into trouble? Could he have even felt sorry for her? Unlikely. Perhaps he just didn’t want her around, but why go about it this way?

 

Absentmindedly, she wondered how long she could have stayed by the drying racks without being noticed. Then remembering the Emperor’s the temper that morning, she decided not to risk looking as if she had vanished, and headed back up again.

 

The castle still felt even emptier than usual, though the throne room was quieter than it had been, and she knew the skeksis must have dispersed. Reminding herself to be more cautious and listen out carefully, she took the chance to have a look around the inhabited floors which were normally off limit to her.

 

The daily noon meeting was a mystery to her, all she knew was like clockwork, every day at noon every skeksis would stop everything they were doing and leave _en masse_. Perhaps with her greater freedoms she would be able to follow them soon and find out just what it was they did? Was it some form of worship? Ritual?

 

Right now that great room that the skeksis all crowded into each midday was unguarded and empty. What harm would it do to take just a quick look inside?

 

At first glance it was disappointing. The room was simply large empty chamber, seriously empty, there was almost nothing in there, no furniture whatsoever. The floor was ornately decorated with beautiful complex patterns carved into it, but so were much of the many other floors around the castle.

 

But there in the centre of it all, was something strange. It looked to be a large prism of glass, purple - a great chunk of crystal was suspended in the midst of it all above a circular hole in the centre of the chamber, with a triangular skylight directly above it in through which sunlight streamed. There was nothing beneath it, yet there it hung.

 

The sight was so strange she couldn’t look away, and simply stood there staring for a few minutes in utter bewilderment. Eventually, she withdrew from the room.

 

And almost walked straight into the Ritual Master.

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said hastily, mind screaming silently at her for not having noticed him approaching. “It won’t happen again.”

 

He continued to stare at her with an aghast expression.

 

“I’m sorry, lord Ritual Master,” she repeated, trying to urgently think of a way to talk her way out of this.

 

He looked at her critically but then to her surprise he simply waved one hand and walked right past her.

 

“I need to speak with you, follow,” he told her.

 

She didn’t dare say anything more, and followed him silently. Was he angry? She knew she wasn’t meant to have gone into that weird chamber. Was it some great sacrilege she had committed? SkekZok didn’t say anything as he led her directly into the strange chamber and stopped beneath the light of that great crystalline monument. It really did seem to be floating. The hole beneath it was as sheer drop, she couldn’t see where it ended, she instinctively moved further away from it.

 

“I suppose you must know of the Emperor’s deteriorating health,” he said quietly to her. “It is only natural that potential successors are already being considered. I am, of course, one of them.”

 

“I’m sure you will make a great emperor, lord Ritual Master,” she replied shakily, overcome with relief that this wasn’t about her.

 

“Tsk, tsk,” he waved her words off irritably. “I already know that. But that is not the problem, the problem is the Garthim Master, skekUng.”

 

“Oh?” she knew where this conversation was headed.

 

“He would be a very poor choice of a ruler, yet he seeks to usurp me at every opportunity possible,” skekZok summarised, then seemed to add for her benefit. “He has a deep distrust of all servants and slaves that are not garthim. Being under his rule might be detrimental to your continued well-being.”

 

“What is it that you want me to do?” she asked bluntly.

 

skekZok seemed taken aback by her sudden bravery, but quickly recomposed himself. “While I was away preparing for the Ceremony of the Sun several days ago, someone went into my private chambers. They took something of mine. The podlings are mute, they cannot say what they see, but you still have working eyes and ears.”

 

_Shooooooot_ … She knew exactly who had been sneaking around his chambers. _Don’t say anything, don’t say anything, don’t let him know you know it was the Chamberlain and not the Garthim Master!_

 

“I haven’t seen anything,” she said, perhaps too quickly. “I’m not even certain where your chambers are, my lord. This castle is huge, and I’m not supposed to even be on the inhabited floor.” _Heh, maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned that last bit, though skekZok must have known._

 

“But you can keep an eye out, and listen,” he said firmly. “That is easy enough.”

 

“I will let you know if I see anything suspicious,” she assured him.

 

“You will keep an eye on the _Garthim Master_.”

 

She didn’t dare argue, let alone try to bargain for anything.

 

And this turned out to be the right decision, as it was later revealed to that day that even when working with him, skekZok was not to be trusted, as less than an hour later, skekNa was sent to look for her.

 

“Good news,” he told her, in a voice that told her the absolute opposite. “You’ve got a new job this evening. You will be helping the podlings to serve supper.”

 

“I had been-” she began to explain how she had been looking for him all day.

 

“The Ritual Master says he saw you wandering around the corridors going places you shouldn’t,” skekNa interrupted her. “You can thank him. He was the one to make the suggestion.”

 

…

 

_What even was this?_ She examined the dish more closely, and it didn’t look any more recognisable. _Some sort of pie?_

 

A trio of podlings passed her carrying a large pot of stew, it smelt heavenly. She almost dropped the large soup-tureen she was carrying (only the top was covered in pastry) and winced as the hot gravy-like sauce seeped onto her right hand. She had seen a lot of dishes passing ahead of her, all smelt good, though she swore she had seen the cooked head of some sort of animal pass by on one, which curbed some of her appetite.

 

Many podlings had passed by her now was because she was deliberately lagging behind. She was nervous, uneasy, maybe slightly scared too. She was about to go before all of the skeksis again, for the first time since she had arrived there, she had a reason to be.

 

_Oh well, best get on with it._

 

They were already eating by the time she arrived. Other than a few curious side-long looks, to her relief they mostly ignored her as she delicately slid the tureen into a gap at the end of a crowded table.

 

She stepped back, towards the wall and crossed her arms, a bit unsure what to do next she tried to copy the podlings who stood around motionless near the table once their jobs were done. Only, she was more than twice their height, and she was very conscious of how out of place she looked.

 

The Emperor sat centremost amongst them all, wide shoulder pads and robes taking up twice as much room as the other skeksis, yet for all this display of power she could see he was unwell, worse than when she had arrived. Half-slumped forward in his chair and barely eating.

 

He gestured for her to come over with a flick of a wrist, and hesitantly she went over.

 

“Wine,” he asked simply.

 

She obliged, quickly taking one of the strange tall vase-like flasks and topping up the Emperor’s empty flask. Wynn then withdrew and stood back against the wall again.

 

For several minutes she was ignored in favour of the podlings.

 

Then skekOk looked up from his meal and stared pointedly at her, and she went over to him. He asked her for something called salted screechrats, and had done so without any gesture to indicate where they were. After looking around for anything that resembled a rat upon the table, she brought him the wrong thing, which he complained about loudly. Eventually she managed to locate the correct dish and pass it to him; the contents looked more like dried fruit than anything to do with rats.

 

Moments later he asked for something again, once again without any gesture. Turblaroot soup. Soup at least meant something to her, but there were two soup tureens, at opposite ends of the table. By pure chance she managed to select the right one.

 

skekOk looked at the soup for a moment and then immediately requested another dish. Braised nebrie. _Braised what??????_ Braised normally indicated it was some sort of meat, that was… stewed, perhaps? The term escaped her. She got the dish wrong three times before she located the right one. skekOk poked at the dish with a fork-like utensil, sampled the food then immediately lost interest.

 

_Goddamn-_

But she didn’t dare say anything to him with the Emperor so close. And now there was a sense of tension was clearly rising in the room, some of the skeksis obviously found her torment amusing, but others such as skekZok were clearly getting annoyed by her running back and forth while they ate.

 

And now skekOk asked her for something that she could not even pronounce, let alone knew what it was. She picked an item at random in hope that it would be the right thing, skekOk was only too happy to let her know it was not.

 

Then a small bone of some kind suddenly came flying out of nowhere and struck skekOk sharply upon his beak, dislodging a pair of his spectacles. It took her a moment to realise it had been from the Emperor.

 

“Enough!” screeched the Emperor glaring at her, and skekOk immediately seemed to shrink in his chair. “Get out!”

 

…

 

A while later, when most of the skeksis had left and the Emperor had been accompanied out by the Ritual Master, followed closely by the snarling General, she went back in and approached the Chamberlain who was taking his time to finish before leaving.

 

“He found it,” she said discretely, gathering some of the dishes together – the podlings were already clearing up the floor.

 

“Hmm,” the Chamberlain seemed to chuckle, but said nothing more to her. Dabbing away daintily at his shirt collar with a napkin before getting to his feet.

 

“Lord Chamberlain, our conversation we had earlier this morning,” she acted a little more deliberately.

 

“Hmm,” he paused deliberately, then turned away with a smile.  “I don't recall talking to you today, hmm?”

 

 “I did what you asked,” she put it plainly.

 

“But I never asked you to do anything,” skekSil continued to play innocent, and Wynn was well aware that she had just been scammed. “I wonder what it is you have done? Hmm? Maybe you shouldn’t be telling me these things.”

 

She returned to clearing up the table as the Chamberlain wandered out of the room. Only thumping the table in frustration once he was gone. There would have been no point in pursuing the subject any further when the Chamberlain was clearly going to deny they had ever even spoken. And besides, it wasn’t even like she had needed those damn box of treats, whatever they were, anyway, it was just the gesture of betrayal that had gotten her.

 

She had been tricked.


End file.
